Where are you from? I’m from Grand Prairie, Texas! A couple of hundred years ago, my family moved here from somewhere in England. But, I’m talking even before that. Where are you from? When you know where you come from, it helps you know where you’re going.
Genesis is a Greek word that means “In the Beginning.” It is an origin, creation, or beginning.
Genesis was written by Moses and it tells us how everything got started, about how God created people because He wanted to have a family that will last for all of eternity, and it tells about God’s relationship with His people.
It’s also about why it got started in the first place. Why is there something instead of nothing? The reason is: God created men and women so He could love them, and bless them, and so they could have authority over and take care of everything else God created.
Diving Into Genesis
When you look at the first two chapters at Genesis, you can find out a whole lot about who God is. In fact, some of what we know about God, we can see just by going outside, going to the mountains, and to the oceans and looking up at the sky, you can see so much about Him.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20
So for people who may say, “I don’t really believe there is a God,” or, “I don’t know if there is a God,” God still believes in you! But, if you look around, deep inside every person, they know there is a God. There are certain things we can know about Him from nature, but then there are other more specific things we find out about God in the Bible because He chose to reveal Himself to us through the Bible. So we need to read the Bible to really understand who He is.
What does Genesis tell us about God?
The first four words of Genesis tell us so much! It tells us Who did it! And when did it happen?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
The name of God is mentioned 30 times in the first chapter of Genesis! That’s one mention for every day of the month! What do we learn about God?
God is eternal.
Nearly every child will ask, “Who made everything?” The answer is God! “Well, then where did God come from?” In Genesis 1:1, we find the answer: God is. He always has been and He always will be. And for me, this makes so much more sense to say that everything came from God than to say everything came form nothing! God never had a start and He will never have an end!
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:2
Because God is eternal, He is the only one who can give us eternal life. Because God is eternal, you can always trust that God will keep His promises. When He says He works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, the reason He knows that is because He has already seen how it’s all going to turn out, because God never changes. God stands outside of time because He created time.
God can do anything.
As you read chapter 1, you see that God is powerful! This is God’s omnipotence, which means God can do anything! In Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20 & 24, you see these 3 words over and over again: “And God said,”
The way God created everything was just to say the word! He created by simply speaking. It was the original big bang! God spoke and BANG! There it was!
Because God can do anything, there isn’t anything that He can’t do.
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:27
God is so strong and powerful that there is no problem you will face that’s too big for God.
God is Perfect!
The concept that there is anything perfect out there is one of the ways we know that God exists. Because God is perfect, everything He does is good! Genesis 1 verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, & 31: “And God saw that it was good.”
Everything God made was “good.” It was all Good!
God never makes mistakes.
God has a wild imagination. God created because He’s the Creator. He’s creative!
He created nearly limitless things with incredible variety.
You see this pattern in Creation of Forming and Filling: Day 1 was light and dark/ Day 4 was sun, stars, moon, and meteors. Day 2 was sky and sea/ Day 5 was birds and fish. Day 3 was land/ Day 6 was animals.
Consider the incredible creativity in animals: Some so massive and some so miniscule!
Think about the galaxies! The Hubble telescope reveals around 100 billion galaxies in the universe or so, but this number is likely to increase to about 200 billion as telescope technology in space improves.
It’s not just quantity, though, it’s also variety. The Amazon rainforest has 1000’s of different kinds of trees. God has created with unlimited creativity!
On the sixth day God created His Magnum Opus! He created a human person! Genesis tells us who we are! In Genesis 1, we meet our Great to the tenth power Grandparents. Here’s what we discover about ourselves when we look at them.
What does Genesis tells us about who we are?
Your life, and every life, matters.
You are not here by chance but by choice. You are here because of God. You might have been told that you were a surprise or an accident, but you weren’t an accident to God. He knew you before you were ever born. In fact, God is the one who made you.
So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; Genesis 1:27a
Why did God make a person? God made you to love you. Because people are made “in God’s image,” that means every single person has worth and value. Every person has a soul. This applies to every social justice issue out there including race relations, sexuality, abortion, mercy killing, and the list goes on. God is the one who gets the final say. He loves each and every one of His creations. That means you are person of worth and value and incredible potential. No matter what you believe, what skin color you have, whether you’re a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, whether you are physically or mentally challenged, your political party, you are loved by God! As followers of Jesus, we need to respect, love and treat each other as people made in God’s image. We need to see the image of God in the people around us and treat people as people of infinite value. We don’t have the right to trample on others or certainly to take anyone’s life or our own life! We belong to God!
And as a person made in God’s image, you have great potential and a responsibility to reflect His image through your life, through what you say and how you live! No matter what you think about your value, God sees you as so much more! He is the one who gets to say how much you’re worth!
You are uniquely designed.
Remember, after everything God created, He said it was good. But the one thing that wasn’t good was for man to be alone.
“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18.
Can you imagine how Adam must have felt as he looked around at all the animals God created and saw that they all had a match, but Adam didn’t see another person. He must have felt so alone! In fact, he had everything, but He was alone, so it wasn’t good.
…male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27b
In Genesis 2, we start to see the difference in these two genders. He put Adam into a deep sleep and removed on of his ribs and made a woman, Eve. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2:23
Woman was made from man, and not from the ground. It’s been said, “The woman was made from a rib out of the side of Adam; not from his head to rule over him, or out of his feet to be walked on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him.”
Man and woman were both created equal “in God’s image,” but both had different roles.
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
This is God’s plan for what marriage is supposed to be: One man and one woman in a committed relationship for life. That’s the picture and the purpose of marriage. Jesus affirmed this in Mark 10:6, going back to this moment in creation:
But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Mark 10:6-8
You were designed for a destiny.
God gave people a job to take care of His creation.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28
The first job people we were given was to populate the earth. We were also given the job to be in charge of the rest of creation. With that comes the responsibility to take care of the things God created. That means taking care of the earth and not polluting or abusing it. We should be thinking about how to leave the world a better place for future generations. We only have one world and we have to take care of it.
Jesus was there at the start.
There is only one God. As Christians, we believe in one God. But the Bible shows us that God is three in one. He is the Father, and the Son who is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. That’s not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament too!
“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” Genesis 1:26
Jesus was right there with God the Father when the world was created.
In the New Testament, you see even more pictures of the Trinity.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17
Everything that was made was made by Jesus and was made for Jesus. He is the one who still is holding it all together. Including you and me!
How do we respond? We give Him our lives and we do what He wants us to do with our lives! We choose to reflect His image and grow to be more like Him.
The same Jesus who was there at creation was the Jesus on the cross! We thank God that the One who made is also the One who saves us from our sin!