Low Self Worth: Made in God's Image (Genesis 1:1 - 2:3)
The History of Creation
Genesis 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; :15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. :17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, :18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. :19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
These verses record the formation of the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day. Here again is a reversal of order from that proposed by the evolutionists. According to Genesis, God created the earth on the first day, and then the sun on day number four.
According to the evolutionist, the earth was thrown off from the sun or bore some other relationship to the sun. Nonetheless, God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. The threefold purpose of placing the light in the firmament was: (1) To divide the day from the night; (2) for signs; and (3) for seasons.
The light-dark sequence on the earth is now dependent on the sun, instead of the light created on the first day. Yet, some would distinguish between bara’ and ‘asah so as to say that at this point in time God merely instituted the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament to function in a particular way relative to earth. Yet, there is no distinction between these two verbs; nor if they were only to appear at this time, having been created on day one, Moses would have used the verb to appear as he did in verse 9. The signs are not those frequently appealed to by modern astrologists, but rather related to faith (Ps 8:1–4; Rom 1:14–20), weather (Mt 16:2, 3), prophecy (Mt 2:2; Lk 21:25), and judgment (Joel 2:30–31; Mt 24:29).
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. It is obvious that the writer is speaking from his vantage point here on earth, or from the standpoint of astronomy. The sun and moon are clearly not the greater lights of the universe. The language of appearance is common in the Old Testament and is in no way unscientific or prescientific. The moon is merely a light reflector, and the sun is only a medium-sized star. Yet, as the writer would gaze into the sky of the ancient Orient, he would note the sun dominated those skies by day and the moon by night; and his description of that phenomenon is perfectly acceptable. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” :21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. :22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” :23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
On the fifth day God created the fish and the fowl. Again, He brought them forth by His mere command, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth.
This command should not imply that the waters themselves produced marine life; but at the command of God, the existing waters suddenly teemed with swimming creatures.
Specifically, God created great whales, the largest animals that ever lived, including the great extinct reptilian dinosaurs. They are warm-blooded mammals. Scripture completely contradicts the theory of evolution, which claims that the first animals in the oceans were sub-microscopic, single-celled creatures.
In addition to this, evolutionists claim that whales had to evolve from four-legged land mammals, which in turn had to evolve from cold-blooded marine creatures. A better rendering of whales would be great sea monsters (Heb hataninim hagedolim). This would include other great fish as well as whales. It is used to describe the serpent (Ex 7:9–10, 12), the dragon (Isa 51:9; Ezk 29:3), and the sea-monster (Ps 148:7). All kinds of marine creatures and each winged fowl were said to have been brought forth abundantly after his kind.
God blessed these forms of marine life and fowl and commanded them saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth (cf. vs. 28). With that blessing, and the passing of another evening and morning, The close of God’s fifth day of creation was concluded.
Genesis 1:24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. :25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
On the sixth day God first created animals and reptiles. The law of reproduction is repeatedly given in the words according to its kind. There are significant variations within “kinds” of biological life, but there is no passing from one kind to another.
Genesis 1:26 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.” :27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. :28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The crown of God’s work was the creation of man in His image and according to His likeness.
This means that man was placed on earth as God’s representative, and that He resembles God in certain ways.
Just as God is a Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), so man is a tripartite being (spirit, soul, and body).
Like God, man has intellect, a moral nature, the power to communicate with others, and an emotional nature that transcends instinct.
There is no thought of physical likeness here. In contrast to animals, man is a worshiper, an articulate communicator, and a creator.
There is an allowance for or even an intimation of the Trinity in verse 26: Then God [Elohim, plural] said [singular verb in Hebrew], “Let Us [plural] make man in Our image.…”
The Bible describes the origin of the sexes as a creative act of God. Evolution has never been able to explain how the sexes began. Humanity was commanded to be fruitful and multiply.
God gave man a mandate to subdue creation and have dominion over it—to use it but not abuse it. The modern crises in the earth’s environment are due to man’s greed, selfishness, and carelessness.
Genesis 1:29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. :30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
It is clear from these verses that animals were originally herbivorous and that man was vegetarian. This was changed after the Flood (see 9:1–7).
Were the six days of creation literal 24-hour days, or were they geological ages? Or were they days of “dramatic vision” during which the creation account was revealed to Moses? No scientific evidence has ever refuted the concept that they were literal solar days. The expression “the evening and the morning” points to 24-hour days. Everywhere else in the OT these words mean normal days.
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