Scene 1: The Creation (Genesis 1:1–25)
Setting: The heavens and the earth
Characters: God the Father, [God] the Son, [God] the Holy Spirit
As the curtain rises we see these words, untarnished by the ages: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). In these few simple words, we have the Bible’s declaration of the origin of the universe.
There was a time when the world did not exist. Science tells us that everything has a beginning and tries to point out what that beginning is. The Bible says that God spoke the heavens and earth into existence and sustains them “by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3). Theories of how God went about creating the universe and how long it took may vary, but the truth of this great fact remains.
The Significance of the Creation Story
Many people like to pass over God-as-Creator to get to the “good stuff.” However, it is important not to take the creation narrative for granted. The book of Genesis brought a revolutionary message to the ancient world.
Approximately 3,500 years ago, the Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Canaanites and Egyptians all believed in many gods. They told stories about how their chief gods arose out of chaos waters, gained mastery over magic, married each other, had god-children, and engaged in violent wars among themselves. The creation stories of many of these cultures (such as Sumeria and Babylonia) explained that the heavens and earth came from the dead carcass of a defeated and dead god—the rivers flowed out of its crushed skull. The gods behind nature—the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, storms—were to be worshiped.
In contrast, Genesis assumes that we cannot go further back than God. There is no attempt to explain from where God originated, because God has no beginning. There is no cosmic war preceding God’s creative acts, because in creation God has no peer or rivals. Genesis turns the tables on these other stories by showing God calmly and deliberately creating the universe. To the people at the time Genesis was written (and to us!), the message is clear: the God of the Bible is the one true God. He alone is all-powerful and eternal …
The God of the Bible
Who is this God mentioned so many times in the first 31 verses of Genesis? Surprisingly, the Bible doesn’t teach a simplistic mono-godism. In Joh 1:1–3 and Heb 1:2, we see the shocking truth: the One who redeemed us by His precious blood, our Savior, is the Creator of this universe! Not only that, but the Bible also teaches that the one true God is a dynamic personality-in-relationship: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Gen 1:2, we see that along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit was present and participating in creation.[1] [1] Taylor, Bayard & Gary S. Greig. 2011. Founders of Our Faith: Genesis through Deuteronomy: From Creation to the Promised Land. (What the Bible is All About: Bible Study Series). Ventura, CA: Gospel Light.