Genesis - 3
How the Earth Began (Part 2)
In our last programme we discovered a number of things about the beginning of this world of ours. We were looking at the first chapter of Genesis - the book of beginnings. We considered the surpassing power and wisdom of God Who is the creator of the heavens and the Earth. Now we are going to look further into God’s creating work on the surface of the Earth.
In verses twenty to twenty-two of Genesis chapter one, we read about the creation of all the creatures of the sea and of the birds of the air. Here is the beginning of everything from the tiniest, darting shrimp to the mighty, leaping whale; from the tiny, jewel-like humming bird to the eagle soaring among the mountain peaks. I don’t know about you, but I am amazed by the immense variety there is in nature. In our day films and television and books bring us the pictures of underwater explorers and we can only marvel at the shapes and sizes and colours of the creatures that abound in the seas. What beauty is seen in the effortless wheeling of birds through the rising currents of warm air. We marvel at the migratory flights of birds from continent to continent. And this first chapter of Genesis teaches us that all this infinite variety of life has come from the mighty hand of our creator God.
In Genesis one verses twenty-four and twenty-five we read about the creation of the animals. All the cattle, all the creatures of the plain, the desert, the bush and the mountain slopes. Here is the origin of everything from the ant to the elephant. “Everything according to their kinds, livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals”, all were created by the living God. Each creature was able to reproduce after its own kind, that is, within its own species or family. You can inter-breed those that are related, but you cannot cross a sheep with a dog, or a zebra with a camel or you will end up with a damaged variety or none at all.
Each creature is of its own kind and cannot change into another kind. God’s word is absolutely dependable on this point and it exposes the hollowness of the claims made by evolutionary philosophy.
Up to now we have been thinking about the creation of the world and the various life-forms with which we are familiar. I have not yet looked at the creation of mankind. I will be doing that in our next programme. But now I want to make a clear distinction between all the other creatures we have considered and man himself. The Bible makes it very plain that he is in a class apart from anything else that lives and breathes. Mankind looks out on everything around and above him and he wonders, he thinks and considers. No other creature is doing that despite every wonderful instance we have of instinct and intelligence in the animal kingdom.
What then does man see and consider as he looks out on the world and the infinite reaches of the heavens? He sees a world that is part of a solar system where various planets revolve around the sun, our nearest star. It is 93 million miles away with an estimated temperature of 36 million degrees centigrade. The sun loses about four million tons of its mass every second.
The solar system in which we live is just one of many others that make up the vast, whirling collection of stars called galaxies that form The Milky Way. Across the infinite reaches of the universe are thousands upon thousands of other galaxies, all expanding further and further into space.
When you begin to think carefully about all these things, doesn’t it make you feel small and insignificant upon this planet of ours? Are we truly the only intelligent life-form anywhere in the universe that God has made? Is Earth the only inhabited planet? Scientists seem determined to prove otherwise. We have no clear evidence with which to answer this question, but the Bible makes it clear that this world and mankind do have a unique place in the purposes of God.
Genesis does not tell us how God created everything, but we do read that “God said”, and it happened. Scientific experts try to unravel the mystery of when things began and they have proposed many theories, but we must keep in mind that science can only deal with hard facts. Scientists can only observe processes at work in the universe and draw their conclusions which may or may not be accurate and which are always subject to change.
Who was there when God created everything? No scientist saw how it was done. In the Bible we read of God putting such a question to the man Job. He did this to make Job realise his own insignificance before his Maker. In chapter 38 and verse 4 of the Old Testament book that bears his name we read:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.”
The whole of that chapter is full of searching questions to which only God Himself has the answer.
As Christians we accept by faith that God brought all things out of nothing. We read in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
There are so many breathtaking, complex processes at work in nature, such fine attention to detail and intricacy of design, that they cry out for a wonderful, intelligent and wise Creator to be responsible for it all.
The important question that we should be asking is not how did God create or when did He create, interesting though the answers might be, but rather we should be asking why? What is the reason behind all this marvellous creation? How can we begin to know the mind of Him who is above everything?
In Isaiah chapter 55 verse 8 God says: “My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways.”
We can only discover some tiny insight from what the Bible reveals to us. In The Revelation chapter 4 verse 11 we have this hymn of praise to God: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power because you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.”
In other words, it was pleasing to God to do it. It was his will and purpose that everything in the universes should come into existence. From all this I trust that you will see that we know nothing of God’s creative will and purpose apart from what He has been pleased to reveal to us in his Word, the Bible.
It may be that you are thinking, ‘Well, not even the first man Adam was there when all this happened. How do we know any of these things?’ That is true, but are we to suppose that when God spoke with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden He said nothing to them of their own beginning and that of the world? They are sure to have asked ‘Where did we come from?’ Just as a child does. It is part of our human nature to question and seek answers to life’s mysteries. The answers they received would be carefully passed down the generations until Moses, guided by God’s Spirit, set them down in the book of Beginnings - Genesis.
As we have begun to discover something of this mighty Creator, my prayer is that you will be drawn to Him. In Jesus Christ, His Son, this great Creator has become the Saviour of all who will turn to Him in true repentance for their sins. If you are already a child of God through faith in Christ, then may these thoughts on His immense, creating power be an encouragement and strength to you. At the close of Isaiah chapter 40 we read that - “The Creator of the ends of the earth gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”