The God who creates - Genesis 1.

The creation account is one of the first Bible "stories" children learn. Anyone who is raised in a Bible teaching church is probably bored with it by the time they reach 10 years old. God created the world. . . blah blah blah. . . sun, moon, stars. . . plants. . . animals. . . yup, gotcha.

What a tragedy! How can we turn the remarkable word of God into a "boring" list of days and objects. This chapter is the first inspired word of God given to His people. Genesis 1 is HUGE, but we get so caught up in creation vs. evolution debates, or in trying to remember whether the sun or plants were created first (plants were), rather than seeing what God is reveling about Himself. See, Genesis 1 isn't as much about creation as it is about God. What God revealed about Himself through this chapter must have been fairly earth-shattering to the ancient Hebrews, and should be to us as well. God, through Moses, started taking the common world-view of what god/s are, and said, this is who I am.


Place yourself in the middle of the desert. You’ve lived the last several years as a walking miracle, led by God from your borrowed (rented) home by promise of a place for you and your children (owned). But you don’t see it. Nothing lays before you but rocks, stones, and dirt. Mountains touch the sky, not broken by stream or mist or rain.

Moses stands before you and the rest of your people. The words he speaks and reads to you, are not like any you’ve heard before. Perhaps a similar legend has been handed down, whispered in the night. But now, in front of all, before millions, the words are spoken loud and clearly. They are different words. They possess and innate power you cannot explain – held enraptured you listen.

“In beginning God, created the heavens and the earth.” Barasheit bara elohim et hashamyim ve’et ha’aretz.

It is a pleasure to hear an account of your god told in your tongue, rather than stories of other gods being spoken in their tongues. See, gods we are used to. Every people group has them. They are national, like the gods of the Egyptians, or tribal, like some of the Bedouin. These gods are tied to their people and their land; their power and scope is limited as such. Wars and conflict between people groups, like the Egyptians and Hebrews, are viewed as conflicts between the gods. The more powerful god wins and his people triumph. Your God is the one who appears in the day as a cloud, and in the night as a pillar of fire. A God of miracles, wrath, and power. The one who crushed Egypt with His wonders and brought His people out, to the desert. But creating? This concept is newer.

The creation poems of Egypt and Mesopotamia, are stories of how their numerous gods came into being. Poems of who begot whom, and who did not get along with the others. These tales dealt with the lifestyle and attitudes of the gods, not the creation of the physical world. This – this account is different.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

Moses recounts how God merely spoke and the sky, the land, plants, sea creatures, birds, land animals, Man, all came to be from nothing – immediately obeying His word. This is an accounting of what happened long ago – spoken as fact, not in the poetical verse of the nearby nations. Moses uses verbs and the sentence structure of the language to communicate important differences about a very real God, to His very real people. The forms of language (grammar) indicating that this account is not myth or legend. This account is fact, history of the world.

What stands out in our minds is how dramatically different our God is from the gods of other surrounding cultures. In Egypt the gods are limited to their people and country. This God, has taken us from one country (Egypt) through land of other nations, and other gods. He has surmounted all obstacles, and guided His people to a place far from where we began. We are used to gods limited by time, and space and to the creative scope of their people, this God stretches the boundaries of our minds. He seems separated from the physical realm as He speaks things into existence - almost like He is outside looking in. Yet, He is personally involved with naming, and approving each step of the process. Nothing goes unnoticed, nothing left on touched. The world that was “without form and empty” is now formed (land, sea, sky) and is full, teaming with life – all from His spoken word.

He is a God in control. The gods of other nations barely know the future (if that), they are bound by time and place. They can't leap out of their poems to bring manna from heaven. They are completely, on totally concerned with their own affairs. The God being spoken of here is not selfish and petty, squabbling with siblings and lovers. He is self-existent, and self-sufficient, oriented toward mankind and aware of our lives. He not only has the power to create, He has the power to bless the creation. He is both in this realm, and apart from it, leaving Him in a position of watchful supremacy, in control of all.