Bible.com.au: Reading Plan - God of all creation

Series Introduction

On New Years Eve 2019, bushfires raged across eastern Australia. A month later, a global pandemic changed the way we live and work. On top of all this, the longer-term changes humans are causing to the environment may well lead to dangerous climate change. Is the creation groaning for the time when it, along with God’s people, will be redeemed? In all such issues, both mainstream science and biblical theology are essential for sound Christian thinking; science uncovers the mechanisms (the “how”) of God’s creation, while theology uncovers the meanings and purposes (the “why”). These reflections dip into 14 of the many creation stories in the Bible using them provoke us to think about creation, new creation, science, suffering, and the wonders of God revealed in his handiwork. We begin with first creation, and we finish with new creation.

Reflection: In the beginning …

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

We start this series of reflections with the first of the Bible’s many creation narratives (there are over 20 of them!). The writer of Genesis 1 (and Genesis 2, and the authors of other creation accounts in this series) was not writing science. We should not forget that biblical writers were people of their time and culture. “Science,” as we know it, is a new endeavour on the stage of history. This creation account is a theological treatise framed in the ways of its time and, while it has similarities to other Ancient Near Eastern creation stories, it is deliberately very different.

Christians do not worship a demi-god, a god amongst other gods. Christians worship the one true God, maker of heaven and earth. We worship the God that made humans in his own image, with rationality and moral responsibility. We worship the God who declares all the creation “very good”; in corporate language, creation is fit for purpose. Men and women, animals and plants, stars, planets and galaxies … all were made fit for the purposes of the Creator.

Question: What is the purpose of your life?

Prayer: Creator Lord, we worship you. Thank you for the abundance of your creation, fit for the purpose of glorifying you and sustaining itself. Forgive us when we forget that the created order is yours alone, and that it is good in its own right. Help us to honour you by fulfilling the responsibility that you gave to humankind of caring for the earth and those around us.

Genesis 1:1-31

The Beginning

1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

14And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

20And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

28God 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.”

29Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

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

God of all creation

Day 1 of 14

NIV

Genesis 1:1-2

Days

Genesis 1:1-31