Intro
Welcome to Lumberjack Theology “axing” the right questions. My name is Jason Lief. And today we begin to explore the Book of Genesis.
How do we make sense of faith and science? What does it mean to read the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2 as God’s word? Some Christians insist that to take the Bible seriously, we must turn our back on science. Others look at the Bible is outdated encouraging people to get with the times and put their trust in science and technology.
What if both are wrong?
It’s possible to read the Bible is the infallible word of God for our lives and. To not be afraid of what science has to tell us about the cosmos. Today, we begin a sermon series on Genesis 1 exploring a theological reading of this passage that brings us face to face with a God who brings light from darkness order from chaos and a God who invites us to love creation with the love revealed in Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1.
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the Earth the Earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then 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. And God said let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. So God made the Dome and separated the waters that were Under the Dome from the waters that were above the Dome and it was so God called The Dome sky and there was evening and there was morning the second day.
And God said let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so. God called the dry land Earth and the waters that were gathered together. He called seas and God saw that it was good. Then God said let the Earth put forth vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on Earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.
And it was so the Earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day. And God said let there be lights in the Dome of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be the lights in the Dome of the sky to give light upon the Earth and it was so God made the two great lights the greater light to Rule the Day and the Lesser light to rule the night and the Stars.
God set them in the Dome of the sky to give light upon the Earth to rule over the day and over the night to separate the light from darkness and God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning the fourth day. And God said let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the Earth across the Dome of the sky.
So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves of every kind with which the water swarming. And every Winged Bird of every kind and God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let Birds multiply on the earth there was evening and there was morning the fifth day.
And God said let the Earth bring forth living creatures of every kind cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind and it was so God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind. And everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind and God saw that it was good.
Then God said let us make humankind in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the Earth. So God created humankind In His Image in the image of God.
He created them male and female he created them. God bless them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill 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 upon the Earth. God said see I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of the Earth and every tree with seed in it in its fruit.
You shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the Breath of Life. I’ve given every green plant for food and it was so and God saw everything he had made and indeed. It was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the Earth were finished and all their multitude and on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed. Because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
This is the word of the Lord.
I’m guessing most of you here this morning know what an overture is. You have been to a musical or a concert, or maybe you remember Bugs Bunny. But before a musical Begins, the orchestra will play every song and every theme that you are about to hear in that experience. It’s a snapshot of what you are about to experience over the next few hours.
Well, this is how we should approach our reading of Genesis 1. It is an overture. It gives us the themes of the Book of Genesis. It gives us the themes of the book of the first five books that we call the pentateuch or the Torah. It gives us the themes that are going to go all throughout the Old Testament and this morning.
I want to suggest it even hits on the themes that we read in the New Testament. Because it’s not only the story of the cosmos it is that but it’s not only the story of the cosmos. It is the story of Israel. It is the story of Jesus. And this morning I want to suggest that what we have just read is also our story.
You see it’s a story that begins in darkness and Chaos with a formless void and a raging water. Now you’ve probably heard this many times from Pastor Mark and I’ve said this to but the ancient world was very different from our world today and the sea was a symbol of chaos and the sea was actually a place of evil. When we read in the Book of Revelation where does the Great Beast come from? It comes from the sea and Darkness Darkness was the enemy it was the place where Temptation and violence and death reside. You see Genesis 1 begins with an earth. That is lifeless. It begins with darkness and Chaos. It begins with an Earth where life is not even possible.
But this morning here’s the gospel message in our text. Where life is not possible, there the Lord brings life. There where life is not possible, the Lord brings life. From the darkness and Chaos of a lifeless Earth the Lord speaks the word and the Lord breathes the spirit and the word and the breath bring forth life. They bring order and form to that which was chaos and formless. The Lord speaks into the darkness and life appears. In the same way that the people of Israel were created out of darkness and death think of the last two plagues. Darkness and death. When the Lord remembers his people and speaks a word through Moses and confronts the powers of darkness and death. When the Lord uses his breath to make a way through the water, Exodus 14:21 says then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea the Lord drove the sea back by a strong East Wind all night and turned the sea into dry land. Throughout the Old Testament the Lord constantly opens the wombs of barren women you’d have to ask.
Why does the Lord continually choose to use women who cannot have children women like Sarah and Hannah and Manoah Samson’s mother? And think about the New Testament the Lord brings forth a child from a virgin’s womb. We’re there. We’re life is not possible the Lord brings life where there shouldn’t be life, the Lord brings life.
Outro
Join us next time on The Lumberjack Theology sermon series as we explore the second part of Genesis chapter one. Thanks for listening.