In the Beginning - Thoughts on Creation As Told in Genesis 1

This is the second installment of a chronological Bible study inspired by A Chronological Bible Reading Schedule by Skip Andrews. As part of my study, I personally transcribe scriptures, using mostly KJV with a little NKJV to replace the "thee's" and "thou's". Occasionally, when a word is a hard-to-understand Old English word, but the NKJV seems to change the meaning too much, I use Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries to determine the original meaning of the word, and then may use that word. My transcription is not meant to be a new translation, but merely my own restating of the scriptures in a way that I can fully understand. Last time we had the prequel; now on to the beginning:

(Genesis 1:1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) 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. (3) And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. (4) And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. (5) And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (6) Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." (7) And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. (8) And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. (9) And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. (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.

The dictionary definition of "firmament" is "heaven", or "the vault of heaven, the expanse of the sky". The original word is "raqiya" meaning "expanse" or "visible arch of the sky". In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, but the earth was without form. That's really quite a thing to ponder. He created heaven and earth, but there was no shape or form! In the beginning it was apparently all like waters, all blended together, and God separated the "waters" and made the forms of heaven and earth.

(11) And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. (12) And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after 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 in the firmament of the heaven 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 heaven to give light upon the earth"; and it was so. (16) And 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) And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon 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) And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Here's another great thing to ponder. On the first day God created light, and yet He didn't make the sun and moon and stars until the fourth day! Now I've heard it speculated that God was the light, but He didn't create Himself and call Himself Day. I believe it's probably just too complicated for our human minds. It's like we think we can put God in our little human box and fully explain Him and His creations. Fully explain GOD? If we could, He wouldn't be very God-like, would He? Think about this. God is outside of time. He created time itself. When we see the stars tonight, we are only seeing the light of the stars that has taken so many light years to get here, that by the time we see it, the stars are no longer in existence. According to many scientists who believe the earth is billions of years old, we should be seeing the light of stars that had to have been around since way before the Bible tells us God created the heaven and the earth and the stars. Yet they weren't. God is God; He isn't confined to our human time tables. I believe He is perfectly capable of putting stars in the heavens and having us see the lights immediately. I always have to chuckle when I hear scientists speak of their dating methods and tools. Perhaps if given millions and billions of years, *maybe* their dating methods work, but when you have a Creator God in the mix Who does not have to adhere to time or those dating rules, then how can they possibly know the real ages of things? How can they really know anything other than what has existed since man has been keeping records? They can speculate, but they can't know for certain. And yet, that is what they often try to convince us, that they can really know prehistoric events.

Back to the question about how there was light before there were the sun and stars, if God can put stars in the sky and have them instantly visible, I'm sure He could just as easily have us see the light of the sun before we could see the sun itself. But then, man wasn't there to see it yet. If light is created, but there is no one to see it, is there really light? :-) But seriously, God made the earth and it had no shape, and He made the light and it had no "shape". Then He shaped them. Isn't it awesome?

(20) And God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." (21) And God created great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, 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) And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. (24) And 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. (26) And God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, and 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) And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (29) And God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and 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. (31) And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

God said to let man have dominion over all the earth and all the animals, contrary to what some pagan religious groups and animal rights activists will tell you. Amazingly, I have seen Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 used as proof that God says man and animals are equal. Sadly, I realized that if you read only the NIV or other modern versions like the NLT and others, you might actually be able to make a case for it. Yet another slaughter of the scriptures by the NIV translators I had missed! Please see my article entitled, Which Version of the Truth Will You Use? It details some of the subtle and some not-so-subtle changes in the NIV translation of the Bible that often greatly changes its original meaning. Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 in the NIV reads:

Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

NLT states it this way:

For humans and animals both breathe the same air, and both die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! Both go to the same place—the dust from which they came and to which they must return. For who can prove that the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward into the earth?

What the scriptures actually say in the KJV:

(19) For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.

Translated: Men die just as animals die. We all have but one breath; man is not given more breaths (lives) than animals.

(20) All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

They all go to the grave when they die.

(21) Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

Who knows the spirit of man? Who knows the spirit of the beast? Further clarifying, the scripture says who knows the spirit of man, that is, the spirit that goes upward? Who knows the spirit of the beast, that is, the spirit that goes downward to the earth?

It didn't say "Who knows?" or "Who can prove?" It said "Who knows the spirit?" and then spoke very matter-of-factly about where man's spirit goes and where animals' spirits go.

This is a great time to point out that you should never trust one scripture out of context. But there is another point I'd like to make about studying obscure, hard-to-understand scriptures. Even if you truly believed that the Ecclesiastes scriptures were insinuating that man and animals were the same (equal), that is the only place in the Bible where that is found. You will find that precepts in the scriptures are always stated at least twice. The Bible states that out of the mouths of two or three witnesses, a thing will be established:

But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' - Matthew 18:16

This will be the third time I am coming to you. "By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established." - 2 Corinthians 13:1

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. - Deuteronomy 19:15

Notice how that direction was given three times. When God created man to have dominion over the animals, it is first found in Genesis 1:26, and then repeated in Genesis 1:28. Then, lo and behold, found in Psalms:

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. - Psalms 8:6-8

If you find only one obscure passage about something and no other scripture to back it up, chances are pretty good that you are misinterpreting the meaning of the obscure passage.