THE GOD OF CREATION
                                                 A Study of Genesis 1-2

   In Genesis 1-2, we see the creating power of God with a special emphasis on man, his crowning work in creation.  Throughout the story of creation, we see several characteristics of God.

   First, we see the power of God in his spoken word.  Repeatedly, the text reveals the different stages of creation were accomplished in these words:  "And God said..." (1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26).  Such work began as a purpose in the mind of an all-wise God unlimited in His ability to bring such purposes to fruition, as seen in the statement, "which God had created and made" (2:3).  God is revealed to man, from the beginning, as the God WHO IS ABLE:  "Ah, Lord Jehovah!  behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for thee" (Jeremiah 32:17).  This introduces a principle that will be carried through the Bible story, culminating in the story of man's redemption through Jesus' resurrection from the dead (by the power of God, Rom. 1:4; Eph. 1:19-20), and the gospel of Jesus Christ (the power of God for man's salvation, Rom. 1:16).

   Second, we observe in the creation story of Genesis 1- 2 a moral God who's every purpose and work can be called "good" (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), with the sum of them characterized as "very good" (1:31).  His infinite power is directed by his benevolent purposes for man's good, and, when there is a deficiency pertaining to man's ultimate welfare and happiness, God says "It is not good..." (2:18).  In Genesis 1-2, God's creation lends a special emphasis toward man.  He creates man in his own image and gives him dominion over all his creation (1:26).  God plants a garden and places man there, giving him a home (2:8).  He provides for man's existence by giving him food to eat (2:9).  God furnished man with work to do, inclining toward his contentment and happiness on this earth (2:15, 19). 

   God gave to man his law, showing him that his happiness is not derived from an unrestrained lifestyle, but by being directed by the divine standard (2:16-17).  When God imposed on man commandments, he reveals further man's makeup as including free will.  Man was not created to be manipulated without expression of will, as a puppet on strings, but is shown with the freedom to choose obedience or disobedience to God's expressed will.  Further, characteristic of God's law is that it can be understood and within man's ability to execute (cf. Ephesians 3:3-4; 5:17). 

   Seeing that it "is not good that the man should be alone" (2:18), God made provisions for man needs and happiness by making for him woman (2:21-25).    She would be a "help meet for him" (vs. 20), to which the man would "cleave" in marriage (vs. 24).  Jesus' commentary on this scripture (Matthew 19:1-9), teaches that God joined them together in this relationship and that it was to be so respected by man, so as not to be "put asunder" by him.  The apostle Paul further teaches that man and woman, in the marriage relationship, are bound together "by law" - GOD'S LAW (Rom. 7:1-4), and disregard for such can cause man to be guilty of adultery.  In Genesis 1-2, God is revealed as the author of marriage, proposing man's happiness and blessing in companionship (2:18; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12), purity (1 Corinthians 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4), and procreation (1:28). 

   And finally, God's moral nature is seen in Genesis 1-2 in the presence of the "tree of life" in the garden for man (2:9), revealing his ultimate design for man's eternal happiness.  By virtue of being created in God's image, man, unlike the animal kingdom, has an eternal spirit, for which God has purposed, planned and provided for his eternal home in heaven.  Though man would, through sin (chapter 3), lose access to the "tree of life", the remainder of God's word in the Bible reveals God's redemptive plan for humanity through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Man, redeemed by Jesus' blood (1 Peter 1:18ff.), can again have access to that "tree of life" lost in the beginning (Revelation 22:14).  The "rest" of God (Genesis 2:1-3) foreshadows this blessed eternal "rest" for the redeemed and faithful (see Hebrews 4:9-10).

   In Genesis 1-2, we also observe the order of God in the design of his creation.  First, was the stages of his creative work into days:  "And there was evening and there was morning, one day" (1:5; cf. vs. 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).  Second, there is the obvious pattern twice followed during the six days of creation involving:  light, water and land (days one - three, 1:1-13), and, again, light, water and land (days four - six, 1:14-31).  Third, divine organization is seen in the purpose of the sun, moon and stars for "signs, and for seasons, and for days and years..." (1:14).  Fourth, is the order of God's world in procreation.  In describing the reproduction of vegetation and the animal kingdom, the expression "after their kind" is repeatedly used (1:11-12, 21, 24-25).  This depicts an orderliness of divine purpose, which devastates the humanistic/atheistic theory that says one species evolved from another.  But not only is this true of the physical world, but also in the moral and spiritual realm:  "...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life." (Galatians 6:7-8).  Again, God's spiritual kingdom is dependant upon sowing the "seed" of the kingdom, the word of God (Luke 8:11), which will always produce "after their kind" - Christians!  This principle of "kind" is introduced in the first two chapters of Genesis.

   Finally, Genesis 1-2 reveals to us the plurality of God.   "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..."  God speaks here of a plurality of personalities included in deity.  Reference is made to the "Spirit of God" in Genesis 1:2.  Further revelation shows a triune God:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit - all of which were active in creation.  The apostle John records by inspiration the agency of the Son in the creation of the world in John 1:3:  "All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made."  Likewise, the apostle Paul declare of the Son of God:  "for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him" (Colossians 1:16).  The Hebrew writer says that through the Son the worlds was made (Hebrews 1:2).  Thus, we have revealed from the beginning a plurality of personalities in the Godhead, each with a specific function regarding creation.  But equally true is the activity of the Godhead regarding man's salvation from sin.  The truth introduced in Genesis 1-2 sets the stage for the remainder of God's revelation to show us the work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in man's salvation.

   In conclusion, the God of Genesis 1-2 has, from the beginning, been mindful of man's welfare, especially pertaining to his eternal salvation.  Salvation in Christ was an "eternal purpose" (Ephesians 3:11; 1 Peter 1:20), which was developed throughout human history until the "fulness of times" that saw the arrival of Jesus, God's Son.

                                                                                                 --Dan Richardson