Editor's Note
As we said yesterday in our “Christian to the Core” series, we’re inviting the entire Harris Creek family to read the Bible over the next four years, one chapter per day, from cover to cover. If you’ve been following along with us, you know we read Genesis 1-6 last week. We’re going to repeat those chapters this week, then move on to 7-12 next week so we’re all on the same page.
Be on the lookout for our new Family Guide coming on Sunday so you can recap and discuss the previous week’s readings with your kids!
Genesis Introduction
The book of Genesis sets the foundation for the unfolding storyline of Scripture. God created everything through His powerful and life-giving Word. He put the moon and stars in place. He created the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything in between. He declared it good. He created mankind in His image with the design to be in perfect relationship with Him and with each other. This sets the stage for what goes wrong. Man chooses to sin and break a relationship with a good and holy God which brings death and destruction. Immediately after man sins, God promises to send a rescuer to redeem and restore the broken world back to Himself. We see the beginning of God’s rescue plan through Jesus within the first few pages of this book. B.B. Warfield, an American theologian, famously described the Old Testament as a “richly furnished room, dimly lit.” Everything is there in the Old Testament, we just see it more clearly in the light and revelation of the New Testament. We see glimpses of the Savior to come starting in Genesis.
The word “Genesis” means origin or beginnings. The book of Genesis covers four major events and four main people. In Genesis 1-11 we see Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. God creates the world, sin enters the world, God enacts judgment towards sin, and God scatters the people and creates nations and people groups. In Genesis 12-50 we see the story continue to play out through the Patriarchs. This includes Abraham, known as the father of the Hebrew people, Isaac considered the second father of the promise, Jacob who is called the father of the nation of Israel, and Joseph who is a leader in Egypt. In Genesis we also see God’s promises to a man named Abraham, which is known as the Abrahamic Covenant. God calls Abraham in order to make a great nation out of him. He promised Abraham: land (the Promised Land), seed (descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky), and blessing (all nations of the earth will be blessed through his family). Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant is essential to understanding the Old Testament, and really the entirety of the Bible. This forms the basis of God’s relationship with His people.
As we read through Genesis, look for shadows of the Savior to come. Take note the character of God and the character of people. How do people fail to trust and obey God? Where does God bless the obedience of man? How do these stories impact the rest of Scripture? Join us through the book of Genesis, as we see the Creator reveal Himself to His creation and the beginning of God’s big story!
Read Genesis 1
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep,and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.”And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times,and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky,over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Go Deeper
In the beginning, God in His sovereign will and good pleasure created the world. He turns chaos into order. He takes what is formless and empty and makes something out of nothing. Genesis 1 gives us a zoomed-out view of the creation of the “heavens and the earth.” The act of creation tells us about the character of God, it tells us about ourselves, and about the world we live in. Creation is both a free act and a triune act. It is not only the work of the Father, but of the Son, and the activity of the Spirit. Colossians 1:16, talking about Jesus tell us, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” All of creation was made for the glory of our triune God!
In Genesis 1, there are various acts of creation that take place in the first six days. God forms the first three days and then He fills the next three. Day one connects to day four with the creation of lights, day two connects to day five with the waters being separated, and day three connects to day six with the making of vegetation and creatures. He creatively made thousands of different species, plants, and animals. The same God who designed all of these things, is mindful of each one of us, and knows the very number of hairs on our head. In Psalm 8, David says, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Our Creator wants to intimately know His creation.
God created people and gives us value and purpose in our identity and in our work. God ascribes greatness to humanity by creating us in His image. Genesis 1:27 tells us that “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” This is the type of language used for royalty. The word “image” in Hebrew is selem which essentially means statue or resemblance. In the ancient world, statues were put in the temples so that worshippers could see what their God was like. The phrase “image of God” originated from ancient Egypt where the pharaohs were considered rulers on behalf of the gods. What makes our worldview unique is that God made His creation in His image to be reflections of Him to the world. We are the means in which people see what God is like. We are representatives as image bearers. This tells us that God created equality in all human beings, making each person with dignity, value, and worth.
Along with the value we have as image bearers, we have incredible purpose in our work. Genesis 1:28 tells us that God made humanity, blessed them, and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” This command gives us the authority to have dominion and to reign. Before the world was broken, God made us to work and gave us purpose in it. Work is not a curse but a blessing. In his book Garden City, John Mark Comer says that our work is a “core part of our humanness.” He says, “You are made in the image of a working God. God is king over the world, and you’re a king, a queen, royalty ruling on his behalf.” We were made to rule or subdue. We were made “good” to do good. We were made to reflect His glory and goodness to the world.
Questions
- What does it mean to be made in the image of God? How does knowing you are made in the image of God affect how you see yourself and others?
- God made us to work and gives us purpose in it. How can your work bring glory to God?
- God made everything with intention and purpose and declared it good! What is something that God created that you could praise Him for today?
Watch This
Check out The Bible Project’s video overview of Genesis 1-11!
18 thoughts on “Genesis 1 + Preview”
Blessings to all who read this.
God creates Gen1:1-2 In the beginning
God forms, Gen1:3-13, He made three spheres of activity. The heavens, the land, and the waters
God fills, Gen 1:14-27. He fills these spaces.
WOW this is the GOD I serve!! He can bring order out of chaos and beauty and fullness out of emptiness. His work was good.
God thank You for Your creation. You are worthy to recieve glory and honor and power for You have created all things and for Your pleasure they are and were created. Thank You for me being a good steward for all that You have created. Thank You for creating a redemption way for me to be able to serve You. Thank You for giving me tools for this journey through Your Word. Thank You for opening the eyes of my understanding to to accomplish Your plans. God I desire to praise You in these minutes of this day. God thank You for helping me glorify You through my actions. Help me to think right thoughts, see people through Your love goggles, hear their words and speak back to them with Your words. God let me love Your people and speak about You in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
26 “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness . . .
Today, I will reflect on the idea that I, as well as every human with whom I interact, is made in the image of God. That’s a game-changer!
As many times as I’ve heard, read or seen Genesis 1 illustrated on Sunday school boards, I never caught this before:
God made every living perfectly designed to CONTINUE making. Plants would bear fruit, creatures would bear offspring, and human beings produce more human beings. The miracle of creation was never intended as a “one and done” exercise.
God did not just create … he instilled in his creation the ability to RE-create.
I am inspired, I am humbled. I’ve been created in the image of an infinitely creative God … but nothing I create is made to last.
Genesis 1 reminds me not only is God Creator …
God is ETERNAL. .
It all begins with God who displays his creative genius full of majestic wonder and power culminating with man and woman as his image bearers. “Humankind was created to be a graphic image of the Creator — a formal, visible, and understandable representation of who God is and what He’s really like.” John Piper writes, “The imago Dei is not a quality possessed by man; it is a condition in which man lives, a condition of confrontation established and maintained by the Creator. … The imago Dei is that in man which constitutes him as him-whom-God-loves.”
I just wanted to say I have felt so spiritually “unhealthy” since starting school and stress, I thought about taking a look at this resource and it is amazing! Currently in the Library reading and I can feel my heart and affections stirred for God’s word and I am so thankful this exists! Thank you, God for equipping your people for this!
Everyone is made in gods image. There are a lot of homeless people around Waco and they can look wild. But they have just as much value as anyone else. May god change my heart & everyone else when we run into these people in need. They aren’t dirty and gross & less than.
Also, I struggled with the creation story a lot. I almost left Christianity because of it. Thank u to Jesus tho! Here’s a great 5 min video for how the “problems” regarding the sun creation on day 4 can be reconciled.
https://youtu.be/JlGVqUZo83s?si=s_FF8scOuaOSiUDy
This is my first time doing a bible reading plan and I’m some excited to connect with GOD on a deport level. I love this resource Harris Creek GAVE ME I know I’m not doing this alone !
Something that stood out to me as I read through this was all the things God separates.
Gen 1:3 – light from darkness
Gen 1:6-8 waters above from waters below
Gen. 1:14 Day from night
Another thing is that In scripture those who are of God the Father (Christians) are called children of light or of the day. Because He is light. … and from the beginning this was illustrated as separate- set apart. Just something that stood out that I found interesting. 🧐
Question:
In Gen. 1:2 earth was formless , empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
So is waters = darkness ?
Then in Gen 1:3&4 God calls light good which would indicate darkness is not good by itself.. because He did not call it good until he created light and separated them.
One final thing that stands out…
He seems to be doing a lot of separating in the beginning- and in the end He will again be separating things… the sheep from the goats , the wheat from the tares. Love seeing how he created life and gave it order.
Did we restart Genesis?
Yes! In the sermon yesterday JP announced to the whole church that we’re going to start over with Genesis 1 today to give everyone a chance to catch up. We’re going to go cover to cover over the next four years!
Blessings from AZ, saw this on JP’s Insta and wanted to join the Bible Study!
Sorry, late to the party. What version of the Bible is this? There is quite a bit missing from the creation of Man and Woman. If I remember correctly, Man was created first and then Woman from Man. Hence the Man created by God, but then birthed by Woman after, leading us to the unity of Man and Woman together to populate the Earth. Also, bringing the Woman under the protection and leadership of Man. There’s a rib in there somewhere. Hmm.
WOW!!! Made in His image. What a love!!!
Never think of yourself as a mistake because it took God 7 days to make everything else. It took God 9 months to make you.
We are all made in the image of God. There is no room for racism in this world. Racism is certainly an affront to God.