A small piece of a MUCH bigger picture
Try to think about this as we dig into God's word...
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King of Glory, Divine majesty,
Every perfection adorns thy nature and sustains thy throne;
the heavens and earth are thine,
the world is thine in it's fullness.
they power created the universe from nothing;
the wisdom has managed all its multiple concerns, presiding over nations, families, and individuals.
Thy goodness is boundless;
All creatures wait on thee, are supplied by thee, are satisfied through thee.
How precious are the thoughts of thy mercy and grace!
How excellent thy loving-kindness that draws men to thee!
Blessed be thy name!
- Arthur Bennet, The Valley of Vision
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Day 1: Genesis 1:3-5
On day 1 God creates the light and dark... I was thinking about this and realizing that my mental image of this was ALL WRONG!
You see when we imagine nothing, we imagine big dark nothing-ness! like a black hole or something... Suddenly I remembered that dark nothing-ness wouldn't make any sense, because there was no darkness yet! But there wasn't light either, so it's not even imaginable what it would've been like! Our God is so powerful, He created light and darkness for our WHOLE world, He had it all planned out so that everything would fit together, he was getting the world prepared for what was going to happen over the next 6 days.
Day 2: Genesis 1:6-8
On the second day God creates the skies and the waters... I was reading through Genesis and I realized that is never says that the earth had been made yet, so any insight on this would be appreciated! As far as I can understand, day 1 was dark and light (no earth) day 2, is water and sky... so was the earth made on day 2? Or was there a big water bubble floating around in the non existent space? (no sun moon and stars yet) And somehow the sky and water is being separated, its seems crazy! It IS impossible... but not for our God!
Day 3: Genesis 1:9-13
Now is when God creates the land, everything seems to be falling into place, God has created water for the plants, so they can live, but wait, they have no sunlight yet! Plants need oxygen (check!), water (check!), and sunlight (no check..) hmmm... How was this all possible? It's amazing the way everything fits together, even though at first, it seems crazy...
Day 4: Genesis 1:14-19
When God creates the sun he knows exactly where to put it so it won't burn us to a crisp, but we also won't freeze to death! And to think some people believe its made by a big BANG! So day 4 God makes the sun, now the plants from day 3 will be able to survive! Perfect timing! God also places the moon in the sky and that helps to balance out the waters. Now there is a bright light to help us see during the day, and another light to help us during the night! Isn't God so creative?!?!?!
Day 5: Genesis 1:20-23
On day five God creates creatures that fly, and creatures that swim... now, these creatures need somewhere to live, right? Good thing God thought ahead! He made a place for the birds to fly, and the fish to swim just 3 days before He actually made them! Isn't that amazing? I've thought before about getting a fish, and one day I was actually standing in front of the fish tank looking inside at those little creatures... I was standing there, getting ready to pick one out when my mom came up to me and said "you'll need a tank to put that, you know..." I had completely forgotten that my new pet would need somewhere to live! I couldn't put him in the dog's house, he had to have a tank to swim in, or else he would die! Without my mom reminding me of the importance of a tank for my fish Jack would've come home without a home to go into! I needed someone to remind me that what I was about to get needed a place to live, but did God need anyone to remind him? Nope! He knew it all on his own!
Day 6: Genesis 1:24-31
"Then God said 'let the earth bring forth the living creature according to it's kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to it's kind'" close your eyes for a moment, imagine a big empty parking lot, now imagine a cow standing in the middle of it... can you imagine that? Of course you can! Cause it's all in your head! You can imagine it, but can you make that happen? can you make a cow come out of nowhere and land in the middle of a parking lot? It's hard to imagine what it must've been like, out of nowhere, cows, horses, pigs, dogs, lizards, rabbits and dinosaurs popping up out of nowhere! :O Mind boggling! But that's not the end of day 6, I'm sure we can all agree what God had done so far was amazing, but God wasn't done yet... He still had one very important thing to do, He created man in HIS image, it says in the Bible he gave man (Adam) dominion over all the living things, he gave Adam control and authority of all that was on the earth. He asked Adam to name that animals... I'm sure that would've been a sight to see! Since there was no set of what animals were he could've called the small quiet bunny a cougar! or the lion a mouse. how funny would that be? haha! Adam was given a huge responsibility, God was putting in Adam's hands the world, giving him control of all the animals and plants... this may seem like a HUGE responsibility now... but think for a second, if you had to babyist your siblings for 1 year, but there were never any problems (sin) no one could get kidnapped, no one could choke on a grape, no one could fall and hurt themself, they couldn't fight, would that be a huge problem? it woulnt be a problem at all! you could sit back and KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were all safe. Adam was given a perfect world, there should've been no problems... right?
I should have the next part to this post up in a week or so. :)
Day 1: God creates the heavens (air/gas/space for the universe maybe??) Vs(1) , the earth (not necessarily the shape but it did contain mass and water)Vs(1) , and light Vs(3). It doesn't say He CREATED darkness just that it existed Vs(2), and then he DIVIDES the dark from the light.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to think about is that this is most likely in context of the universe-the earth specifically. Darkness is simply the absence of light (at least in our universe not necessarily with God-I don't know) but we do know that Jesus is light because we find in Revelation 21:23 that Jesus IS light and will light all of New Jerusalem (and maybe the whole earth??) so the sun and moon are not needed. Because God is unchanging I would suggest that there was light before Genesis 1:1 somewhere in the universe just not around the earth.
Good thoughts, thanks for sharing and keep it up.:)
@Jeff- About your comment that says there was light somewhere in our universe, just not around the earth. It would seem to me the only light would be in Heaven (where Jesus is), and unless you believe that Heaven is in our universe, that God created, that wouldn't really make sense. I don't know where Heaven is (duh), but I don't think it is in this universe, because where would it have been before God created the universe that the earth resides in? Logically, because God made the universe, there couldn't have been light in it before it was created, which is Genesis 1:1.
ReplyDeleteThough,by the way you worded your opening statement, I would take it that you think the universe just existed before God created the Heavens. I personally believe that Genesis 1:1 is when God created the universe.
@Emma- Great job! =D
@Bekah, Sorry for the confusion-I do believe the universe in the sense of being space was created the first day (1:1)though maybe not the air and gas that I mentioned. I was using universe metaphorically that wherever God's manifestation was, there was light-just not in our universe (it would be hard to have light in a place that didn't exist yet). I also believe that heaven (as in where God "dwells") as described in the Bible was created-I just don't know when but I assume it occurred during the 6 days of creation it just isn't specifically mentioned. As for whether it is in our universe or outside of it? I don't think the Bible covers that idea for us to know.
DeleteSorry to post this so late...I didn't know you guys were conversing here till Emma told me the other day.
Is it just my computer being weird, or did my comment get published twice???
ReplyDelete@Jeff I think it depends on your translation, because my Bible says He created darkness and light... but I don't think there was light anywhere in the universe, since the Bible says God created the light wouldnt that mean it wasnt there before?
Delete@Bek Your computer is being weird. :)
My Bible, King James Version, does not say that God created the darkness, it just says that...it's easier just to quote it :-P
Delete"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light': and there was light." -Genesis 1:2-3
I do believe that God is totally capable of creating darkness, but I agree with Jeff that darkness is just the absence of light, so there is definitely the possibility that there was darkness before light. To my obviously human brain, which is rather incapable of grasping some things, it would seem that there had to be darkness before God created light, because why else would have he created light? And if there wasn't darkness...what was there? That is where my brain can't grasp the concept that there was niether darkness, or light... :-P
Bekah, yeah that was pretty much my point, we can only imagine the concepts, our minds can't even grasp it... does that make since?
DeleteI guess that yes, that makes since, that darkness is the absence of light, so i suppose there was darkness... it's just confusing for my little tiny brain! :P
It has come to my attention, that though there might have been "Darkness" to us it wouldn't have been perceived as darkness because there wasn't anything to compare it to. Not that humans existed at that point :-P. So the darkness would've been just been the nothing, and when God created the light, that is when it became perceived as darkness.
DeleteI am curious what translation you are using...I haven't found one yet is all...
DeleteQuestion: When a tree falls down in the woods and there is no one to record hearing it did it make a sound? I would answer yes because sounds are physical waves traveling through the air and are not determined by if there is a sensor to record them. In the same way, since darkness is defined by an absence of light it wouldn't matter that there wasn't any created light yet. Also, did God need to create light before He could perceive that there was darkness?
Here is another thought to twist our brains all up. Since the universe initially was just a big vast empty 3-dimensional space that God created, was there no space and therefore no darkness before the universe was created? It is hard to conceive what there was before the was anything other than God Himself. :)