What does Genesis 1 say about God?
Posted on May 23, 2011 by Pastor Tom
What does Genesis 1 say about God?
The One Triune God is the Creator of all that exists. Where do I get the word “One?” Where do I get “Triune?” By Triune I mean 3 in one: One God in essence composed by 3 persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Well, I certainly look back at this passage through a New Testament lens where the nature of our Triune God is fleshed out more clearly for us. But I think there are clues to the One Triune God’s essence nature in this chapter. I can see a glimpse of One and Triune or Trinity from verse 1. “In the beginning God created. The word God translates the Hebrew “Elohim” in plural form. Yet the verb is create is in singular form. So there is One God in being. But there is something more about this one God. The plural form of the name may refer to His majesty and using a plural form somehow expresses that this God is infinitely more majestic than some local pagan idol.
I also conclude that God is One by looking throughout this chapter. The same name of God appears and He is the One who creates the sun, moon, stars, water, earth and great creatures of the sea. The pagans believed that each one of those was an individual god. But Genesis 1 emphasizes that this One majestic God created all of these.
I conclude that we can say “the One Triune God created all that exists from verse 26. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Now some argue that this means God speaks to the heavenly council of angels in this statement. But humans are not made in the image of angels. They are made in the image of God and the plural language may indicate God in three persons talking about creating man.
This One Triune God creates. This verb create is used only of God in the Old Testament. It points to His unique ability to bring into being something that wasn’t there before. Create “bara” is reserved for God. As one commentator puts it “The finite mortal, whose understanding of the cosmos and history is like a thimble of water before the ocean, has no right to challenge the Creator’s Sovereignty. God fashions the creation, including earthly mortals according to his wisdom and good pleasure, even as a potter fashions clay vessels.
But what is going on in verse 2? Did God create the heavens and the earth and then create something formless, empty and dark? Some have speculated that God started creating in verse 1. Then there was a big gap of time between verse 1 and 2. Then we’re invited to see creation up to that moment in verse 2. Then God brings order to that creation. But verse 2 implies chaos of some sort. The descriptions of verse 2 point to things not associated with God – formless, empty, darkness, chaos.
Another explanation sheds some light on this. It argues that Genesis 1:1 is really the title for the whole section. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth – the totality of the universe.” Then verse 2 talks about this chaotic, formless, dark place. Where did this chaos come from? We don’t know. We’re not told just as we are not told how the serpent could be in the garden in Genesis 3. The origin of this chaos and reason for its existence are not revealed. But what’s interesting is the pagans of that time believed that the sea was a god. They believed that there was a great struggle between the god of the sea and the gods of order over creation and the uncovering of dry land.
With that cultural background in mind, Genesis 1 unfolds as God’s triumph and supremacy over chaos, emptiness and darkness. The creation account becomes a redemptive account. It is the triumph of light over darkness and land and sky over water. The myth of a water god is exposed. There is no water god. Water must obey the One God.
Remember, the people of Israel, the people Moses wrote for were deeply steeped in pagan religion. They constantly slipped into pagan worship. Whenever things went bad, they turned to idols and supposed gods of nature. Even at the close of the book of Joshua after they have conquered the Promised Land, Joshua declares in chapter 24:14 “Throw away the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt.” The people of Israel were still dabbling in Egyptian myths and pagan practices. So this creation account deconstructs the pagan myths and so called gods.
One commentator writes “Each day of creation dismisses and additional cluster of deities. On the first day, the gods of light and darkness are dismissed. On the second day, the gods of sky and sea. On the third day, the earth gods and gods of vegetation. On the fourth day, the sun, moon and star gods. The fifth and sixth days take away any associations of divinity or god status from the animal kingdom. And finally human existence is emptied of divinity. So the pharaohs and kings and heroes are not gods. But all people are granted the image of the One God.”
(Next time – Do people today worship other gods?)
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