God’s Joy in Creation

Genesis 1:1-5, 10-12, 16-13, 27, 31

GOLDEN TEXT: “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.”—Genesis 1:31

UNDOUBTEDLY God experienced joy in the outworking of His marvelous plan of creation. This was not because He needed to be surrounded with either animate or inanimate objects of creation in order to be happy. God, the Self-existent One and Creator, who is from everlasting to everlasting, did not need companionship. His joy in creation, therefore, was in realization of the blessings He would have the opportunity to bestow upon the living things which He created.

Our Golden Text reveals that the Creator was well satisfied with the work of creation, pronouncing it “very good.” That which is very good with God is perfect—not necessarily complete, but as He desires it—hence we read in Deuteronomy 32:4 that “His work is perfect.” The sin and imperfection with which we are surrounded today are due to a “fall” away from the original perfection of creation.

Few, if any, writings in the world contain so much information stated in so few words as does the first chapter of Genesis. And the information is scientifically correct. The scientific nature of this narrative, however, is not apparent to the casual reader. It must be studied in the light of God’s plan in order for its harmony with facts to be appreciated.

The “beginning” referred to in the opening verse is not the beginning of the six creative days outlined in the remainder of the chapter. The creation of the “heaven and the earth” mentioned in this verse pre-dates the work of the six days. It is a general statement of fact that God was the Creator of all things. The “first day” mentioned in the 5th verse dawned at a time when the “earth was,”—already existed—but “without form, and void.”—Genesis 1:2

Yes, the earth had been created, but it was unfit for the sustenance of either plant or animal life. It was “without form,” probably in a gaseous state, and “void,” or empty. The first work of creation, belonging to and marking the beginning of the six creative days, was the producing of much-needed light, for the newly formed earth was enveloped in a canopy of darkness.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” This was not the light of the sun, for its light did not appear on the earth until the fourth creative day. (Gen. 1:16-19) An important truth is thus emphasized, namely, that the six creative days are not literal days of twenty-four hours each for the very obvious reason that there could be no such literal days until after the sun and moon were made to shine upon the earth and thus to control the day and night.

It is the failure to see this point, and the erroneous claim of would-be fundamentalists who insist that these days are of the same length as our literal days, which helps to blind many to the scientific accuracy of this opening chapter of the Bible. Science has clearly demonstrated that the forming of the earth’s crust into its present shape covered a period of thousands of years, which is in harmony with the Bible when we recognize that the “days” of Genesis are thousands of years in length.

The chief development of the first creative day appears to have been the providing of temporary light. This, as well as all the other creative processes, was accomplished by the “Spirit of God.” The Spirit of God is His divine power—a power capable of producing anything the Divine Architect deems wise. The “light” of the first day was doubtless the result of an electrical phenomenon, although there is no way of determining definitely just how it was brought about. Even scientists can only guess about it.

The second day witnessed the development of the atmosphere with which the earth has ever since been surrounded. This was accomplished by separating the “waters from the waters,” that is, by causing the atmosphere to encircle the earth, thus forcing the thick canopy of vapor to separate, some of it rising above the earth, while some continued to hug its cooling crust.

During the third “day” the waters upon the earth were divided, causing land to appear. This was doubtless brought about by a buckling of the earth’s surface, forming hills and valleys—the waters rushing into the valleys to form the seas, while the higher levels of the earth’s surface became continents and islands. Vegetation also appeared during the third day.

It was, as we have seen, during the fourth day that the “greater light” (later named “sun”) was made “to rule the day,” and the “lesser light” (later called the “moon”) “to rule the night.” The thought evidently is that during this day the sun was caused to rule the day and the moon to rule the night—not that these luminaries were “made,” or created, during the fourth creative epoch. The first verse of the chapter says plainly that God had already “created the heavens and the earth,” which would include both the sun and the moon, so what occurred during the fourth “day” could not have been the creating of these heavenly bodies, but a thinning out of the bands, or rings, of gas and vapor which canopied the earth, permitting the light of the sun and the moon to penetrate the dense atmosphere with sufficient brightness to divide the night from the day. Thus God “made” or caused the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night.

It was during the fifth day that the fish indigenous to the sea, amphibious, and bird life were created: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature [margin: Heb. ‘creeping soul’] that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth. … And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”—Gen. 1:20,21

The sixth day witnessed the creation of land animals, each “after his kind.” This expression is God’s way of describing the fixity of species. The Apostle Paul expresses the same truth, saying, “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” (I Cor. 15:39) Thus does the great apostle confirm the Genesis record of creation.

It was at the close of the sixth creative day that man was created—“male and female created He them.” (Gen. 1:26,27) This was the crowning feature of the creative work, the great objective of it all so far as this planet is concerned. God had created the earth for the habitation of man, and he gave man dominion over it. Man, as the king of earth, was commissioned to fill and conquer his domain, and to rule over and use all of the lower forms of creation as his servants.

It was a marvelous arrangement, both for man and for beast, and it was not in vain that God designed it; because it is yet to become operative to the everlasting joy of all mankind. The prophet assures us of this when he declares that God created the earth “not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.” (Isa. 45:18) The earthly creation would have brought but little joy to either God or man were sin and death permitted to reign forever.

But God loved His human creation, and through His Son provided redemption from the penalty of death which was inflicted because of original sin. The Creator knew that there could be no lasting joy apart from continued obedience to His will. The permission of evil will ultimately demonstrate this fundamental truth to all who are willing to learn it. And those who learn it and obey, having been redeemed from Adamic death, will enjoy everlasting life in the restored paradise. This lasting joy of God’s intelligent creatures will rejoice the heart of the Creator.

It is a mistaken notion of some that the man described in Genesis 1:26,27, as being created “in the image of God,” is not the same one whose creation is described in Genesis 2:7. The claim based on this error is that the man of Genesis 1:27 was spiritual, while the man of Genesis 2:7 was earthly and carnal. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find any authority for this viewpoint. Paul speaks of the “first” man as being “of the earth, earthy,” and tells us that his name was Adam. (I Cor. 15:45-47) Paul had no knowledge of a man who, it is claimed, was created before Adam, the “first” man.

There is perfect harmony between the first and second chapters of Genesis when we recognize that the one is a brief statement of what was involved in the entire six days of creation, while the second chapter shows man’s composition—how and of what he was made—and begins to reveal the details of God’s purpose in His creation.

The “first” and only man directly created by God was not spiritual, but earthly. He was created “in the image of God,” but this did not mean that he was given a spiritual nature, or that he was destined ever to become a spirit being. He was an earthly image of the invisible God in the sense that he was endowed with the ability to reason, and to know right from wrong. He was endowed with a conscience which gave him a realization of guilt when he disobeyed his Creator. For this reason, man was a creature capable of being governed by the words of God—words which expressed the desire of God’s mind.

To this degree man’s mind can be in tune with the mind of the Creator. He is capable of understanding and acting upon the expressed will of God. The sheer power of God forces the obedience of the inanimate things which He has created, but man is able to understand the will of the Creator and to obey by choice. In this sense also man is seen to be in the “image of God.”

The first man chose to disobey the Creator. Through this act of disobedience the entire human race became as a “lost sheep,” strayed from the fold of God. But the “Good Shepherd” has, through the redemptive sacrifice, “found” the sheep. Soon, through restitution processes, the race will be restored to the fold, and then there will be “joy in heaven” indeed. God’s joy in creation will then be unbounded.

QUESTIONS:

Are the six creative days of Genesis twenty-four hours in length?

Was God’s original purpose in the creation of man permanently frustrated by Adam’s sin?

Was the first man spiritual or earthly, and in what sense was he created in the image of God?

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