Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does Genesis Chapter 1 mean?

The first chapter of Genesis describes the most extraordinary event in the history of the universe: its creation. Given what this moment represents, and what we know of science and nature, this is often referred to as the greatest of all possible miracles. The opening verses of the book of Genesis are nothing less than an account of how God, with full purpose and intention, made everything that exists.

What this account of creation tells us about God, and His role in our origins, is certainly interesting. What’s equally fascinating about these opening verses is what details they do not provide. This, of course, is the reason for the controversy often surrounding Genesis 1. While other events in the Bible may be given many thousands of words, and minute details, the entire subject of creation is handled only briefly in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Even among those who hold the Bible to be authoritative, inspired, and inerrant, this leaves ample room for disagreement about how these verses are to be read in the present day.

Questions inspired by this chapter have become long-running debates. Was the universe created in six literal 24-hour days, or some longer period of time? Is the text meant to explain a literal process, or symbolically represent the work of God? Is this the account of the absolute beginning moments of earth’s existence or had God created something earlier, with events occurring between verses 1 and 2?

All of those questions have various answers; those answers have varied levels of support, and their own unique implications. And yet, despite what some well-meaning believers (and non-believers) might think, most of those varied options don’t conflict with the key theological truths of Scripture. As a result, we won’t spend a large amount of time or space discussing those specifics in this particular commentary. The bottom line, meeting the purpose of this ministry, is that Genesis chapters 1 and 2 explicitly state several key ideas which are—for those who take the Bible to be the word of God—simply beyond debate. While Bible-believing scholars may disagree on how God created and when God created, one thing is undeniable: Genesis chapter 1 chapter insists that God created.

In other words, no person who claims to believe the Bible is truth can also reject a belief in God as the Creator. If the Scriptures are God’s Word—and they are—then God intends to be known as the Creator of all things.

More than likely, this text was originally written by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Moses, thanks to his upbringing (Exodus 2:1–10), was very familiar with pagan religious views. During the time in which Genesis was written, many cultures engaged in the worship of sun, moon, stars, seas, sea creatures, and other natural wonders. Genesis 1 counters that culture, as well as the naturalism of our modern day, by claiming that none of those things are gods. Rather, they are merely things created by the one, true God. He alone is worthy of worship because He alone is the Maker. In the following chapters, we will come to know Him as the God of Israel.

Genesis chapter 1 unfolds a story using repetition and rhythm. This passage was originally composed in the Hebrew language, under an often-rigid structure. These verses describe God’s decrees of creation through the context of six individual days.

Many patterns are built into the text of this opening chapter. For example, one recurrence is God preparing the world to sustain something, such as life, before creating that very thing in the same general order. So, on day one, God creates light; on day four, He creates the sun, moon, and stars to distribute that light. On day two, God separates the waters, creating the oceans; on day five, He populates the oceans with sea creatures of every kind. On day three, He creates dry land and fills it with vegetation; on day 6, He creates animal and human life ready to consume the fruit and plants that existed.

Genesis 1 is a rich, detailed chapter. This text is only the beginning of a fascinating, essential book for all who would know and understand God. Readers are strongly encouraged to take their time in reading and understanding these words, and to enjoy the time spent gaining insight into the handiwork of God (Psalm 19:1).

Chapter Context
Genesis 1 is the first chapter of what came to be known as the Pentateuch: the first five books of the Bible. Likely written by Moses, Genesis 1 begins the story of God and His relationship with His people Israel. The role of God as Creator is not only important for setting up His work in later chapters, but also in His supremacy and authority for all of the other words of the Scriptures. God intends first to be known to all peoples as the Creator of all things—from sun, moon, and stars, to human life itself. And as the Creator, He is owed worship by all He has made, including and especially human beings

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The very first book of the Bible begins with two equally enormous claims: There was a “beginning,” and God created everything. This immediately contradicts the view of an eternal or cyclical universe, and any religious view which takes the universe to be an accident, the product of many gods, or part of some other process. History shows that the idea of a “beginning” is so theologically loaded that secular science resisted it until it literally became impossible to deny.

Genesis 1 is a controversial chapter. Debates rage about the meanings and implications of many words. How long ago did God create? How exactly did He create? What were His methods? Much has been written to discuss, debate, and illuminate those questions. The primary debate is over the extent to which Genesis 1 is meant to be read as symbolism and poetry, versus being read as unvarnished narrative. To some extent, such arguments are beside the point of this passage.

Those who take the Scriptures as inspired must agree that God means for us to understand Him first and foremost as the Creator. Of course, everyone does not agree that the Bible is the authoritative and inspired Word of God. This then produces even more controversies regarding Genesis. That, as well, is beyond the scope of this commentary.

For the most part, we will stick to the core, crucial, clear ideas. What’s beyond debate is that the opening words of the Bible clearly claim that God—who we will come to know as the God of Israel—created the heavens and the earth. That is, He created everything in the natural world from the heavens, the sky, and space, to our planet and everything on it.

The text begins by saying that God created “in the beginning.” Even conservative, Christian scholars come to slightly different conclusions based on that verse, depending on how they understand the original Hebrew language was intended to be read. Was this beginning the instant of “time zero,” when there was no “before?” Or, is this a reference to “the beginning [of God’s creative work],” or the “season of creation”?

However we answer that question, it is an awesome thought that one being created all of our universe. Only God could do such a thing. The following verses will add details to God’s work as Creator, crediting Him with forming various aspects of the universe. This is crucial not only as a means of giving God due credit, but also for dispelling suggestions that God was uninvolved or disinterested in these creations. And, these words will counter claims that the stars, planets, or plants or animals, are themselves divine and worthy of worship.

Context Summary
Genesis 1:1–13 describes the first three days of creation. These follow a common pattern. First, God speaks, then He creates, then names His creation, then declares that creation ”good.” Finally, the day is numbered. Each of these first three days prepares creation for what God will create in the second three days. Day one creates light, night and day, preparing for the sun and moon on day four. Day two creates the oceans, preparing for sea creatures on day five. Day three creates land and plants, preparing for animals and humans on day six.

Verse 2. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:1 announced that God created everything: “the heavens and the earth.” Verse 2 begins to describe the process of that creation.

According to this text, the earth was empty and literally in chaos. The Hebrew words used here are tōhu and bōhu, translated as “formless” and “void.” Segments of Bible scholarship disagree about whether this “formlessness” was the state of the earth immediately after the initial creation, or the result of some events between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. In either case, at this point in the story, the earth is covered with deep waters. A darkness was over the surface, and the Spirit of God was over the waters.

Why darkness? Light will not be created until the following verse. There can be only darkness at this point. Still, God’s Spirit is moving in this darkness. God is preparing to speak, to act with great power to bring order and light to this chaos.

Verse 3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

This verse records God’s first spoken words in the Bible: words of creation. God literally speaks light into existence in the universe. As used in this form, in this passage, this is meant to be understood as natural light. While aspects of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 are often debated, this is clearly not intended as a metaphor for spiritual light or something else. Before this moment, light did not exist in the physical universe (Genesis 1:2). God intends for us to understand Him as the Creator even of light itself. Without Him, there would be only darkness.

Some might object to the idea of light existing before stars or the sun. As an interesting scientific point, though, secular models such as the Big Bang themselves theorize that light—photons—actually existed before complex forms of matter. In other words, just as the Bible stated that there was “a beginning” long before secular science admitted the same, the Bible also said that light existed before stars, well in advance of secular science coming to the same conclusion.

Verse 4. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

This is the first of several times in the creation account where God will pronounce what He has just made as “good.” He made light, and He approved of it. Pointedly, God did not call the darkness good. In Hebrew philosophy, “light” was the ultimate ideal, and a symbol of wisdom, goodness, and knowledge. There is powerful symbolism in God’s choice to create light among the darkness of the universe.

This verse begins a pattern repeated for the rest of the passage. In each of the next days of creation, God will speak something into existence, see the effect it has, declare it good, and then the text will declare the number of the day.

Here, God is said to have separated darkness and light. The two would exist in the world separately from each other, with light being the dominant force. To the extent that light appears, darkness will always disappear. Darkness has no defense against light, since “darkness” does not really exist, in and of itself. It is simply the absence of light.

Verse 5. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Genesis is a book of firsts. In verse 3, we heard God’s first recorded words in the Bible: “Let there be light.” We saw God’s first approval of something as “good.” Now, in verse 5, we see God name something for the first time.

God named the light day and the darkness “night.” Naming things is a significant act in the book of Genesis, as well as in the rest of the Bible. Naming something, in the ancient mindset, is a claim to ownership. Having the right to name something means claiming sovereignty over that thing. Later, God will task Adam to name the animals as part of his human work in ruling and subduing the earth.

In part, then, we see that God means to remain Lord over night and day. He created them. He intended for day and night to exist; they are not merely an accidental consequence of the natural world. Another way to apply this point is that God is not merely creating and then allowing this creation to spin out of control. What He has created, He still maintains authority over.

Finally, the verse ends with the blueprint used for the description of each of the six days of creation: There was evening and there was morning, the first day. From very early on, the people of Israel thought of a day as beginning in the evening, at sunset, and continuing until the sun set on the following day. That may explain the wording in Genesis 1 of “evening and morning.”

Some scholars suggested that these days need not have been strict 24 hour days in the sense that we think of them. As noted before, there is nothing explicit in the text to dispute or support this claim. Nor is there anything which explicitly proves or disproves that they are most certainly 24-hour days. The God who is capable of speaking light into the world is certainly capable of creating as much as He would choose to in a 24-hour period of time, or of creating using a longer process. The important details are those which God has actually given: He created light, and called it “good.”

Verse 6. And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

Genesis chapter 1 follows a rigid structure, according to a very specific pattern. God will create something through His words, observe it, declare it good, and then Scripture will indicate the number of that creative day. The first half of these moments—days one, two, and three—prepare creation for some future component. The corresponding days in the second half—days four, five, and six—show the creation of that new thing.

In the prior verses, God completed the first day of creation, making light, day, and night. Here, God turns to the waters. Verse 2 indicated that the earth was formless, void, and covered by deep waters. Now God issues a command about those waters: separate them.

More specifically, God calls for something to be placed between the waters: a space or firmament or vault or sky or heaven (depending on the translation). The Hebrew term is rā’qi’a, which implies something solid and supportive. The word-picture offered here seems to be of raising up the top part of the waters and inserting an open area: what we would usually think of as the “air” above the sea or land.

But what about the top layer, the “waters” above the sky? Some scholars suggest those are the clouds of the upper atmosphere or simply the atmosphere itself. Others have speculated that a water “canopy” once existed in the upper atmosphere that is no longer there in our day. In any case, the larger point of the verse is that God’s power includes the ability to order even the oceans to do His bidding and breathable air to come into existence on the earth. Once again, God and God alone is credited with creating the world as we know it.

Verse 7. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.

In the previous verse, God spoke words of creation, and in this verse He fulfills those words exactly. Throughout the Bible, God speaking a thing and doing a thing are inseparable. In this case, that created thing is the atmosphere, or sky, or vault, or heaven, depending on the translation, which is placed between the seas below and some layer of “waters” above. The Hebrew term used in both verses is rā’qi’a, implying something which lifts or supports. The image of Hebrew thinking was waters below, and waters above, separated by the “firmament” of the sky. Scholars have offered various interpretations of what the waters above the firmament are meant to represent.

The ability of God to create is understated here using the Hebrew phrase wa yehi kēn, literally meaning, “and it was so.” As much as God’s existence is treated as obvious and necessary (Exodus 3:14), His power and ability is also not given much detail. Rather, the focus is simply on the basic fact: God intended to create, stated His intention, and then what He intended to occur actually occurred. Regardless of interpretation, this basic idea cannot be separated from the biblical text.

Verse 8. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

The description of creation given in Genesis follows a poetic but very firm pattern. For each of the first three days of creation, God modifies the world in preparation for some new thing. Then, in each of the corresponding second three days, He creates that new thing and places it in the world. In each case, God observes His work and declares it “good,” and the day is given a number.

The previous two verses detail the creation of an expanse between the waters of the sea and some upper layer of waters. Now, in verse 8, God names that space. In Hebrew, the name He gives to it is sā’mā’yim. Bible scholars translate this term as “sky,” or “heaven,” or “air.” In Hebrew, the word can be applied to any of these, based on context. It’s not likely that the word means heaven in the sense that we normally think of it in our day. This heaven is very likely “the heavens,” or the atmosphere: the “empty” space above the sea.

The primary message is that, on creative day two, God formed an open space and named it. As with other aspects of creation, this counters any claim that the air, wind, or skies are themselves divine. Even the sky and atmosphere around us are an intentional part of God’s creation of the earth.

Verse 9. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

Verse 9 begins the third day of God’s creation week. On this day, God continues to refine His creation by adding more detail and order to the earth. On day one, God created light and separated day from night. On day two, He created a “firmament” which we would think of as the sky. These follow the rigid structure of Genesis chapter 1: God speaks, creates, observes, declares His creation “good,” and then numbers the day. Each of the first three days prepares for something God will create on a corresponding day in the second half of this creation week.

Here, in verse 9, God separates land from ocean. More specifically, He commands the waters of the earth to be gathered into “one place,” and that the dry land appear. This doesn’t necessarily mean that God created one single ocean, as we would understand it. However, looking at the earth as seen today, all of the “oceans” are connected into one single, massive, continuous body of water. In the next verse, these waters are called “seas.” The word picture presented here is a global body of water punctuated by one or more land masses.

Once again, the emphasis is not on minute details, but a “big picture.” The point of this verse, as with the rest of Genesis chapter one, is crediting God—and God alone—with the power and authority to create all we see.

As with verse 7, God’s ability to create is understated, using the Hebrew phrase wa yehi kēn: “and it was so.” For God, this act of creation is no more or less complex than this: He commands, and it is so. We stand in awe at the power being described here. With a sentence, God brings dry, habitable land to the earth, ready to support the abundance of life that He is about to create.

Verse 10. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

This account of day 3 of creation follows the pattern of the previous two days. God speaks something into existence, names it, and then observes that it is good. This is then followed by a numbering of the day. According to Hebrew thinking, the act of naming something implies the namer’s responsibility for and rule over that thing. To name something is to have power over it. In this case, God names the dry ground “land” or “Earth,” and He names the waters “seas.”

Once again, God recognizes what He has made as good. That is a significant statement, coming from the ultimate standard of everything, which is God Himself. As we get to know Him in the Bible, we see that He measures goodness in absolutes. To be good, in this sense, means that there is no “bad” in a thing. All that God made during His creation week was utterly and truly good.

Verse 11. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.

The third day of God’s creation week involves some extraordinary developments. First, as described in the previous verses, God spoke and caused dry land to appear, separating it from the seas. This follows the pattern of Genesis 1: speaking, creation, naming, blessing, and numbering. In this verse, God once again speaks, commanding vegetation to grow on this newly formed land.

The wording of the verse is specific, though various translations handle it slightly differently. In general, the Hebrew phrasing around “seeds” and “kinds” implies a particular intent within creation. We are meant to understand that these plants and trees produced in themselves their own seeds. Built into them was the ability to reproduce, according to their own kind. In other words, God’s decree was that each kind of plant and tree would bear the seed of the next generation of that specific kind of plant and tree. This once again places a claim to God’s supremacy over all aspects of creation, including the form and function of all living things.

Verse 12. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

This verse nearly repeats the language of the previous verse. God commanded something to happen on earth: the development of plants and trees. This verse describes this very thing happening, exactly as God declared it. Plants and trees of many kinds came into being, and each of them carried the seed that would cause the next generation of those specific plants and trees to grow on their own.

Another key fact to take from this account is that God built reproduction into His creation from the very start. His intent is clear: He would not create the world over and over again. He would create it all once. He would make it good, and He would build into His good creation the ability to keep recreating itself according the kind—of plant, in this case—which it was.

Genesis 1 provokes various debates and conversations about how and when God created, and how or if that creation has changed since the initial creation. What is clear is that the Bible intends us to understand that God, and God alone, made living things with the intent of them reproducing, from the very beginning.

Verse 13. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

This simple verse repeats the pattern for numbering each day of God’s creation week. As mentioned previously, the Israelites counted days from sunset to sunset, from evening through morning and on into the daylight hours. That may be why each day is described in this way.

This completes the pattern of Genesis chapter 1, for the first half of the creation “week.” In each case, God speaks, then His words are fulfilled, then He names His creation, and then declares it good. The Bible then applies a number to that creative day. Each of the first three days produced the conditions needed to support what God will create in each of the second three days. The first half of these days produced light, the sky and seas, and then land. The second half, then, will see God populate those areas with the sun and moon, birds and sea creatures, and land creatures, respectively.

The lack of detail in these verses is probably deliberate. The point of Genesis chapter 1 is to deliver a powerful truth: that God, and God alone, is responsible for the creation we see around us. And, that those created things have no power. Sun, sea, trees, and sky are not gods or spirits, but objects formed by God. We may not have complete understanding of how God accomplished His creation, but the Bible leaves no room for doubt as to who is responsible, and who has authority over what has been created.

Verse 14. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,

Regardless of translation, verses 14 through 18 can seem somewhat awkward in English. These words were originally written in Hebrew, and under a highly structured repeating pattern. And yet, the core point of these verses is impossible to miss: God made all the heavenly bodies, ascribed to the fourth day of His creation week. For the original readers of Scripture, this countered the widespread belief that stars, comets, and the sun were themselves divine. By clearly showing God’s creation and control, Genesis dispels the idea that there are any true gods other than God.

Days four, five, and six of the Genesis creation week correspond to days one, two, and three. That is, what God creates in each of these last three days is placed in the setting He created on the corresponding earlier day. In this case, on day one, God used His creative words to form light. This verse describes day four, where God commands that there exist “lights in the expanse of the heavens,” or in the “vault of the sky.” The following verses will explain that these “lights” are the sun, moon, and stars.

This raises what some see as a difficult question: How did God create light and day and night on the first day (Genesis 1:3–4) if He had not yet created the sun? It’s a reasonable question, and we don’t have a perfect answer. The easiest explanation is that God caused light to exist apart from the source of sun and stars until those were created, something clearly within His power. Another option is that these words describe the first time that the sun, moon, and stars became visible on earth, possibly due to a vapor canopy or clouds. Some scholars offer further alternative explanations.

One interesting point of note is that secular science, per the “Big Bang Theory,” actually supports this order of light, then stars. According to that model, the universe was filled with photons—light particles—long before there were stars or planets. Whether or not this has a meaningful connection to this part of Genesis, the point is that light preceding stars is not only scientifically possible, modern science claims that was actually the case!

In any event, Scripture does not provide specific details here, meaning they are irrelevant to the point at hand. The main idea of this verse is to describe God’s purpose for these lights, according to His command. They were to separate day from night, as well as to serve as signs of days, years, and “seasons,” which in this context refers to sacred times.

It is clear that God intended from the beginning for the earth and the solar system to move according to a regular pattern. He meant for days, years, and seasons to be orderly, measurable, and predictable.

Context Summary
Genesis 1:14–25 describes the second three days of creation: days four, five, and six, just prior to the creation of human kind. As with the first three, there is a common pattern. God’s spoken word results in creation, which God then names and declares ”good.” The day is then numbered. Each of these days fills something created in one of the prior three days. The sun and moon are created on day four, while day and night were created on day one. Sea creatures are created on day five, for the oceans formed on day two. Land animals—and, later, human beings—are made on day six, for the dry land and plants which God created on day three.

Verse 15. and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

This verse concludes the statement begun in the previous verse. In this passage, God completes His command to create the sun, moon, and stars, on day 4 of creation. In verse 14, God commanded lights to appear in the heaven—meaning the sky. The purpose of these lights, according to God, is to serve several purposes: to separate day from night, to mark the days, years, and seasons and, in this verse, to provide light upon the earth.

This demonstrates the common pattern of Genesis chapter 1. Each of the first three days prepares a setting, while each of the second three days populates that setting. On the first day of creation, God created light. On day four, He creates specific sources of daily and nightly light upon the earth. As mentioned earlier, the idea of light existing prior to the sun and stars seems backwards, but according to modern science it’s not so far-fetched.

Regardless of how one reads this verse, it concludes with four unmistakable and remarkable words: “and it was so.” This uses the Hebrew phrase wa yehi kēn. This is an almost comically simple way of explaining something as awesome as the creative power of God: He spoke, and the sun, moon, and stars came into being.

The prior verse says God intended our view of the universe to be used for timekeeping. Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens above us serve another purpose: to declare God’s glory, to proclaim in what He has made the Creator’s magnificence. Both Psalm 19 and Romans 1 insist no language is necessary to see the glory of God from what He has made.

Verse 16. And God made the two great lights — the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night — and the stars.

Verses 14-19 describe the fourth day of the creation week, during which God created the sun, moon, and stars. Following the usual pattern, prior verses related God’s words, followed in this verse by a description of that command becoming reality.

The sun and moon are pictured as two great lights, one each to govern—or “rule”—the day and the night. At the time Genesis was written, many cultures worshipped the sun, moon, and stars as if they themselves were gods. The claim of the Bible is that these “lights” are not deities, merely created things made by the one, true God. It’s an idea that still stands in opposition to many cultural norms. This would have been especially meaningful to the people of Moses’ day, when nations such as Egypt were dominated by belief in gods of the sun, moon, stars, and skies.

This verse ends with another profound understatement: God made the stars. Given what we know of the immense universe surrounding us, this is an incredible display of power. The idea that God created the whole expanse of our universe in a day, with a word, should astound and humble us. Not only does our view of the heavens help us track time (Genesis 1:14), it is also intended by God to provoked us to worship Him, through the immensity and beauty of what He has made (Psalm 19:1).

Verse 17. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,

This verse repeats statements made in prior verses. This is meant to fit the structured, poetic Hebrew language structure used in verses 14 through 18. This structure is sometimes called a chiasm. This is a specific way of arranging the words to emphasize the central idea of what is being described. In this case, for all the details which this passage does not include, the central point becomes all the more clear: heavenly bodies are not gods, they are created by the One True God.

The central purpose of the sun, moon, and stars was to provide light on the earth. These also allow people to track time (Genesis 1:14) and inspire us to glorify God for His creative power (Psalm 19:1). People living in the modern era often have easy access to artificial light. In fact, it can be nearly impossible to escape for those living in large cities. As a result, it’s hard to appreciate how powerful and necessary and beautiful natural light truly is. We can easily take for granted this cornerstone of God’s creation.

Verse 18. to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

As with verse 17, these words repeat information given previously. This is part of a poetic structure known as a chiasm, which arranges ideas around a central theme. This verse repeats the intended purposes of the sun, moon, and the stars as lights in the expanse of the sky. They were made to rule over the day and to rule over the night, to separate the light from the darkness.

The fact that these are said to be appointed by God, in order to “rule over” the day and night is also important. Genesis 1 is very explicit that these lights are not persons and they are not gods. They are not to be worshipped in hopes of earning their favor or avoiding their anger. These are created things, subject to the one and only God.

In other words, these things “rule” only in the sense that without their light, all productive life on the earth would come to a halt. Directly or indirectly, all life on earth has become dependent on the sun’s light during the day, and the light of moon and stars at night. Even now, in the era of artificial light, the rule of sun, moon, and stars is absolute in that they mark the passing of time. We often speak of running things “by the clock” even though clocks themselves only show time passing. In the same sense, the movement of the sun, moon, and stars display the passage of time, though they themselves don’t make time itself operate.

Following the same pattern as the other days of this creation “week,” God recognizes His creation as “good.” He approves of the sun, moon, and stars and their dominant place in the life of our planet. In doing so, He declared their glory and His own.

Verse 19. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Genesis frames God’s creation of all things using a poetic structure. This follows a strict pattern, where God speaks, creates, observes, and blesses His work. The day is then given a number. Verses 14 through 18 described the fourth day of creation, where God formed the sun, moon, and stars. Here, verse 19 closes out the description of the fourth creative day, referencing the concept of “evening and morning.” In this time, Israel defined days from sunset to sunset, from evening through to morning, sunset to sunset.

God’s creation of the sun, moon, and stars counters any belief that these are deities themselves. Many cultures, including ancient Egypt, worshipped the sun and moon as gods. Other religions, and modern astrology, believe that the position of these objects determines a person’s fate. By making it clear that these are just pieces of God’s creation, Genesis dispels any claims that there is supernatural power in the heavenly bodies.

Verse 20. And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”

Verses 20 through 23 describe God’s fifth day of creation, in which He creates all the creatures of the seas, as well as the birds. This is according to the pattern of Genesis, where God used the first three days to prepare an environment, and the second three days to populate that environment. On day one God created light, and on day four He created the sun, moon, and stars. On day two God created the sea and sky, and here, on day five, is His creation of sea and air life.

The pattern will then continue in later verses: On day three, God created dry land, and we will see the origin of land animals on day six.

God’s spoken command is to let the waters—the seas—teem or swarm with swarms of living creatures. The picture is of filling up an ocean intended to carry the abundance of God’s creation. In a similar way, God commands the sky to be full of birds that would fly across its previously empty expanse. This is all part of a process where God’s design comes into focus. He didn’t merely create the oceans for their own sake. The purpose of the seas was to support active, teeming life. The purpose of the empty sky was to host the countless variety of birds He would create.

Verse 21. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

In the prior verse, God spoke the command for the empty seas to fill up with living creatures, and for the empty skies to be filled with flying birds. Now in this verse, He executes that command. This is the blueprint for all six of the creative days of Genesis. God speaks and His words become reality. Later verses will continue the pattern of God observing His creation and calling it “good.”

The verse specifically mentions the great sea creatures or sea “monsters.” As with the sun and moon, these ancient beasts of the sea were frequently worshiped as gods by ancient cultures. The Bible’s claim is that those creatures were merely created things, along with all the other fish and the birds. They were made by the one, true God in a day. He alone is worthy of worship.

This verse also specifies that all of these brand new creatures were made “according to their kind.” From the very beginning, God divided created life into categories: kinds of plants, kinds of fish, kinds of birds. Built into each creature was the ability, the necessity, to reproduce their own kind.

Again, God recognizes that what He has made is good, giving His approval to the world He is building.

Verse 22. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

For the first time in Genesis, God gives a direct spoken blessing. Specifically, He blesses all the creatures of the seas and the birds. His blessing is about reproduction and fertility and comes in the form of a command to these creatures: Be fruitful and multiply. In other words, God both commands the birds and fish to multiply and blesses them with the ability to do so. In making this statement, Genesis is declaring that God is not only the creator of life; He is the one who enables life to reproduce itself. He alone is the giver of fertility, of new generations.

That’s important for us to hear on several levels. First, to worship any other god in hopes of being blessed with fertile crops or herds or human families is a waste of time. Only God grants that blessing.

Second, whatever our position on how and when God created, Genesis insists that He is the one who blesses all creatures with the ability to reproduce another generation of their kind. Reproduction doesn’t happen without Him. For all of its beauty, the creation account of Genesis provides very few actual details. What’s meant to be understood, however, is profound: God and God alone is responsible for the design and existence of life.

Finally, we see in this verse that reproduction is a blessing. God grants new life as a gift and to fulfill His own purposes.

Verse 23. And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

This verse completes the normal blueprint for the creation days in Genesis. In each case, God speaks a command, which then becomes real, God sees what He has created, and then considers it “good.” This verse features the typical reference to “evening and morning,” reflecting the Jewish concept of days beginning at sunset.

On this fifth day, God has created all sea creatures and all birds and blessed them with the ability to reproduce and populate water and air. This also follows a pattern seen in Genesis chapter 1, where the six days of creation are paired between the first three and the last three. God created light on day one, and the sun and moon on day four. He created the sky and seas on day two, and formed air and sea life on day five. This now sets the stage for day six: on day three, God created dry land. So, on the next day of creation, He will form both land animals and human beings.

Verse 24.And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds — livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

Here, on the sixth day of creation, God moves from the seas and the air to the land. He speaks the command for animals to come into existence. More specifically, He calls for the land to produce living creatures according to their various kinds. This is a curious reference, and part of the long-running debate over what specific mechanism God might have used to create these animals, if any.

“Livestock” would include cattle and other domesticated animals. “Creeping things” is a reference to rodents, reptiles, insects, and so forth. “Beasts of the earth” are wild animals.

Once again, this conforms to the strict sequence shown in Genesis chapter 1. The first three days of creation show explicit parallels to the second three days. On day 1, God made light; on day 4, He created the sun, moon, and stars to distribute that light. On day 2, God separated the waters, creating the vast, empty oceans; on day 5, He filled those waters with sea creatures. On day 3, God created the land and filled it with vegetation; now on day 6, He fills the land with animals ready to eat from those plants.

Verse 25. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

In Genesis chapter 1, God uses three days of creation to prepare the earth. On these first days He creates light, the sea and skies, and then dry land and plants. On the second three days, He fills those environments with the sun and moon, air and sea life, and land animals.

In the previous verse, God commanded the creation of all the different kinds of animals and creeping things that would fill the land of the earth. Now in this verse, He executes that command, creating what He decreed must be created. Interestingly, God phrases this command as “let the earth bring forth” these living creatures (Genesis 1:24). In literal terms, this would imply the land animals being produced by the earth itself—making this phrase part of the ancient debate over how God chose to accomplish His creation.

Once again, God recognizes what He had made as good. God did not create anything that He decided was not up to His own standards. All that He made He called good. In fact, God’s original creation of the universe, before being corrupted by sin, was completely good in every way. Nothing bad or corrupt had yet entered the world.

Verse 26. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The creation week now reaches its climax with the creation of human beings. This verse is breathtaking in its implications and puzzling in the questions it raises.

God decrees, “Let us make man in our image,” using a Hebrew word—ē’nu—which is unmistakably plural. Why does God speak of Himself as more than one person? Scholars have offered a wide variety of ideas over the centuries. Three explanations are offered more often than any others.

First, God may be referring to Himself and the angels. This seems unlikely given the rest of Scripture’s depiction of angels. These beings are presented as servants and messengers, not creators or rulers.

Second, this could be what scholars call a plural of self-exhortation or self-encouragement, meaning He is referring only to Himself. This would also be referred to as “the royal ‘we,’” something we see used by human kings and rulers when making proclamations or decrees.

The third possibility is that God is speaking as a Trinity, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. According to Scripture as a whole, the full Trinity was present at creation. Genesis 1:2 describes the Spirit of God hovering over the waters, and John 1:1–3 reveals that the Word, Christ, was active in the creation of all things.

Next, this verse raises the question of what it means to be made in God’s image, or in His likeness. Without question, this statement does not mean that God created humans to resemble Him physically (John 4:24). Rather, this seems to support the idea that God endowed humans with a certain kind of awareness, one which animals and birds and fish were not given. In other words, humans would possess the capacity for reason, morality, language, personality, and purpose. In particular, the ability to use morality and spirituality are unique to human beings among God’s creations on earth. Like God, we would possess the capacity to experience and understand love, truth, and beauty.

Humans are made in God’s image in another way: as a model, or a representative. God is the Maker, and all of creation belongs to Him. He is Lord over it. However, in the moment of creation, God gives mankind the responsibility to rule over all other life He has made on the earth. In that sense, humans would stand as God’s image, God’s representatives, on earth as we rule over and manage all the rest of His creation.

Context Summary
Genesis 1:26–31 describes the origin of human beings, the most unique of all God’s creations. As with other aspects of the creation account, very few details are given. The information we are given, however, is unmistakable. Man is uniquely created ”in the image” of God, invested with authority over the earth, and commanded to reproduce. These points each establish critical aspects of the Christian worldview, and the proper attitude towards humanity. As with other portions of this chapter, debates over certain details do not override the central truth: man is the purposeful creation of the One True God, and represents something special in this universe as a result.

Verse 27. So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them.

The blueprint for Genesis chapter 1 is God speaking His intent, then creating. In the previous verse, God decreed what should be made and why. Now in this verse, He makes the first of all human beings. The verse is written with a poetic structure of three lines. God creates man in his own image. In the image of God man is created. God creates both male and female.

One meaning of being created in the image of God is mankind’s unique capacity for moral and rational awareness. God made humans to be inherently different from animals. He built into us some of His own qualities; we share with Him the experience of personality, truth, beauty, meaning, will, and reason. These attributes allow us to relate to God in ways other created beings cannot. Another meaning is that humans were meant to stand as the image of God’s authority on the earth as we rule over and subdue the rest of His creation.

That we are made by God, in the image of God, is what gives all men and women deep value. That point is echoed throughout the Bible. James, for instance, points out that we ought not curse human beings because they (we) are made in God’s likeness (James 3:9). Those who bear God’s image should not be treated disrespectfully or discarded easily. It is not surprising, or illogical, to see that cultures which reject the idea of man’s creation in the image of God are cultures which terrorize and abuse other human beings.

Verse 28. And God blessed 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 heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

After creating humans as male and female in the previous verse, God pronounces His blessing on these first people who are made in His image. Built into the blessing is the capacity to reproduce new generations of human beings—and the command to do so.

God gives four instructions: Be fruitful (or “bear fruit,” have babies). Multiply (as each new generation has more kids and they have more kids). Fill the earth (populate). Have dominion (or authority and management) over all the other creatures.

These commands frame many important aspects of a Christian worldview. One crucial point to note is that the commands to reproduce and multiply came prior to the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3. In blunt terms, this means that God created mankind with the capacity for sex, and sexual reproduction, and intended us to utilize those abilities. Sex, therefore, is not sinful in and of itself. Of course, like all good things, sex has a proper context: marriage. And yet, this simple point—that God created us as intentionally sexual creatures—speaks against the recurring myth that the Bible considers sex itself to be morally wrong.

As explained in Genesis chapter 2, God would directly create only two humans. The rest of us would come from them, one generation after the next. Humankind’s first responsibilities would be to fill up the earth with people and to care for the earth as God’s representatives.

Verse 29. And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

After forming humankind on the sixth day of creation and decreeing our first purposes on the earth, God now describes what humans are to eat: the fruit of all the plants and trees created on day 3. As was the case with every other living thing created by God, these plants and trees were designed to reproduce themselves (through their seeds), one generation after the next.

It is interesting that God does not instruct humans to use animals for food at this point in history. Certainly here in the beginning, God does not explicitly offer the animals to the humans for eating. Some Bible scholars hold that there was no animal death before sin entered into the world. Others hold that the natural process of predator-prey did occur, but human beings were not subject to physical death until after the fall.

Regardless of such debates, what is clear is that God provided for the humans made in His image, and their offspring, to be fed by providing plants and trees that would reproduce themselves. In addition, humans would learn to access the seeds of those fruits and vegetables to grow more and more food for themselves, generation after generation. God has been providing for mankind from the very beginning.

Verse 30. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

These words are very similar to the previous verse, in which God expressly makes clear that humankind could make use of every seed-bearing plant and tree for food. Now He says the same is true for the animals, birds, and creeping things. It’s all but impossible to miss the fact that, in this moment, God does not expressly offer animals as food for humans or for other animals. Later, God would specifically change His instructions to man about what other parts of His creation were available for food.

This is often interpreted to mean that all creatures God created were initially herbivores: plant eaters. Other scholars see this in a less literal and more general sense: that self-sustaining plants are the core source of food for the animal kingdom. While there are various theological, scriptural, and scientific arguments to be made on both sides, neither is really the point of this passage.

In other words, the specific food being eaten is not the take-home lesson of this verse. Rather, this passage clearly defines God as the provider. That’s who He has been from the very beginning. In His own way, by His own will, He provides food for man and beast (Matthew 6:26).

Verse 31. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

On each day of this creation week, God recognized what He made as good. Now, having created mankind to populate and rule over this world, God declares what He has made as “very good.” The balance of nature, the process of reproduction, and the supremacy of mankind are all part of this “goodness.” As such, Genesis chapter 1 not only credits God as Creator, and dispels other religious myths, it also establishes His stamp of approval on the natural order.

On every day, at each step along the way, God declared what He would make, and then He made it. He succeeded in creating the perfect version of what He, in His absolute perfection, decided to create. After six days of creation, the universe not only existed, but it was flawless in beauty, in function, in purpose, and in potential. God saw all of it and saw that it was very good.

End of Chapter 1.

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