What is the biblical Creation story?

When that moment comes, Scripture speaks of days, — "and the evening and the morning were the first day." I believe these days were days of twenty-four hours. How simple and perfect is God's tale of creation! He first of all created, in the beginning, the heavens and the earth; and secondly, at a date which we can measure, reformed and fashioned the earth, and then put man on it. He did not create the world in six days, nor does Scripture say so. Careless readers have done that. A joiner might fashion a table, but he could not create the material. The creation of the wood and the making of the table are totally different things.

If we now glance at the six days, we see that first of all God brings in Light. That is what you all want. You must get light. Every man needs it, and it is a wonderful moment in a man's history when God says to him, "Let there be light." Has it ever come in your history? Has God said about your darkened soul, "Let there be light"? Well, light came. The second day He discloses heaven. That, I think, is very nice, — He did that before He touched the earth. Earth was not designed to be man's eternal resting-place, but heaven may be yours and mine through the precious blood of Jesus. The seas are next divided from each other; and the vegetable kingdom comes into existence on the third day. The sun, moon, and stars — the powers that were to rule on earth — were next seen, on the fourth day; and on the fifth day you get a part of the animal kingdom — fish and fowl — created by the simple fiat of God. On the sixth day, another side of the animal kingdom — the beasts of the field — come into notice, as we hear God say, in the 24th verse, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing." On the sixth day we get God's statement about man's genesis. And now, if you have any doubts about your origin, will you listen to God for a moment? — "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea," etc. It is man as a race that is meant here, as we read, "in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." God (Elohim) goes into solemn counsel over man's creation. Elohim is the plural of Eloah, "The Supreme." It is Deity — God in the absolute! God, as God, goes into solemn counsel, and says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." These terms are quite different. An image gives the idea of representation; likeness gives the idea of moral quality. "Let us make man in our image." He was to represent God on the earth, and rule over the earth. That was the point in the words, "let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth" (ver. 26).

We turn first of all to the opening chapter of Scripture — the first of Genesis. There we read (Gen. 1:2), "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The first place then, in Scripture, where we learn of the existence of God's Spirit is in connection with creation, and not merely creation, as that which came out of the hands of God at the beginning, but that which this second verse presents to us, viz., the earth in a state of chaos, that God was about to put His hand to, in order to fit it for man's dwelling-place. I suppose that every person here knows that the first verse of Genesis, where we read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," carries you back to limitless ages, previous to the moment of which the second verse speaks, and that the interval between verses 1 and 2 admits of that, which geologists demand, namely, almost immeasurable periods of time in which the various strata of the earth's surface were deposited. We find in the second verse that "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep," and thereafter it is we read, "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," and consequently, and immediately, we find God acting, during six days, in infinite goodness, at the end of which, we learn that the earth, as it now is, was prepared, and turned out of the moulding hand of God, fit for the habitation of man. I believe these six days were days of twenty-four hours, as the language, "the evening and the morning were the first day," naturally suggests, and the seventh day proves. In the next chapter, man is put upon the earth to dwell therein, to keep it, and rule over it.

In this way the new dispensation interprets the old. But we find that the reality is the spiritual; the material things serve as shadows, This is the formula: seen — temporal; unseen — eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Thus interpreting the first chapter of Genesis by the first chapter of John, a correspondency will be seen, which reveals the operation of the same Mind in each case, and which suggests that the great spiritual truth of John 1 was present in that august Mind when it arranged the material operations of Gen. 1, Genesis giving simply the shadow, and John the substance. In each case the soul is guided back to survey "in the beginning" God triune, sole, absolute, whose transcendent power and capacious wisdom was pleased to originate and develop all things. In Genesis then we see first the order of heaven and the earth (1) before the horror of darkness and chaos, over which wide desolation the billowing Spirit broods (2). At length came the days, in the first of which "light was" (not said to be then created) fighting with the darkness — never blending, over hostile — and divided from it (3). Then heaven, the expanse, was with a separating power and effect (6-8); dry land appears on the third day, the earth apart from the sea, with herbage and fruit to be produced (9-12); the sun is appointed (not now made but for the first time disclosed to the Adamic earth, having been hidden not merely during convulsive changes, but by the vast vapours and clouds that must in the previous glacial, marshy, or heated periods have existed). For light had been here from the first day; but now the great light-bearer of our system is disclosed to rule the day; the moon and subordinate lights also (14-19); then the sea is productive for man, and fowls are to fly in the expanse (20-23); the beasts too next day, and the race, man, to rule and be blessed (24-31). "This universal frame began, from harmony to harmony. Through all the compass of the notes it ran, the diapason closing full in man," made in God's image, after His likeness.

In contrast take the simple, profound account of creation in Genesis 1. How did Moses know that the order of creation was first the fiat of God, of the introduction of light, of day and night; of the distinction and the connection between heaven and earth; of the arrangements of earth and seas; of the beneficent ruling of day and night by sun and moon; then the creation of fishes, birds, cattle, beasts of the field and creeping things, and finally of man and woman.

On the first day light is. Next a firmament is separated in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters. Thirdly the dry land appears, and the earth bringing forth grass, and herb, and fruit-tree. There is the provision of God, not merely for the need of man, but for His own glory; and this in the smallest things as in the greatest. On the fourth day we hear of lights in the firmament. The utmost possible care appears in the statement. They are not said to be created then; but God made two great lights (it is no question of their mass, but of their capacity as light bearers,) for the Adamic earth — the stars also. Then we find the waters caused to bring forth abundantly "the moving creature that has life." Vegetable life was before, animal life now — a very weighty truth, and of the greatest moment too. Life is not the matter out of which animals were formed; nor is it true that matter produces life. God produces life, whether it be for the fish that people the sea, for the birds of the air, or for the beasts, cattle, or reptiles, on the dry land. It is God that does all, whether it be for the earth, the air, or the waters. And here in a secondary sense of the word is the propriety of the phrase "created" in verse 21; and we shall see it also when a new action comes before us in imparting not animal life but a rational soul. (Verse 27.) For as we have on the sixth day the lower creation for the earth, so finally man himself the crown of all.

But here comes a striking difference. God speaks with the peculiar appropriateness which suits the new occasion, in contradistinction from what we have seen elsewhere. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." It is man as the head of creation. It is not man placed in his moral relationships, but man the head of this kingdom of creation, as they say; but still even so with remarkable dignity. "Let us make man in our image." He was to represent God here below; besides this he was to be like God. There was to be a mind in him, a spirit capable of the knowledge of God with the absence of all evil. Such was the condition in which man was formed. "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon earth." God created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him. In conclusion, the Sabbath day, which God* sanctified, closes the great week of God's forming the earth for man, the lord of it. (Gen. 2:1-3)

In the first chapter it is God making everything for man's comfort and blessing day after day, on the sixth day forming man, and on the seventh day resting because all was finished. God is mentioned in this section about thirty times; but in the second chapter we have not simply God (Elohim), but all through it is the Lord God (Jehovah Elohim). Why is this? Because it treats of man's relationship with God. Now relationship is formed, God reveals Himself as Jehovah God. Unlike the first chapter, it is not here God giving a consecutive account of what He made in six days, and then rested; but this chapter enters into details more in moral order than in a consecutive style, and very especially occupies us with Jehovah Elohim's thoughts and ways with "the first man." He is long afterward spoken of in scripture as "the first man," and this chapter is authenticated by being quoted from in that he "was made a living soul." (1 Cor. 15:45.) Genesis 2 informs us, that "Jehovah God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." He was to till the ground. He might eat of every tree except "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and if he did eat of it, death would be the result. As he was created to have dominion over every living creature on earth, Jehovah Elohim brought them to him to name them; and whatever he called them, that was the name thereof. The account also recorded of the formation of Eve, gives us one of the most striking types of Christ and the church found within the whole compass of scripture. There is also the intimation, that redemption was not brought in merely to repair what man had spoiled; but that, before sin entered, God's eternal counsel and purpose as to Christ and the church were before His mind, and, as we are afterwards told, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. The earth, however, would be the platform on which man must be tested; man innocent, and man guilty; man without law and man under law; man in Christ's presence on earth, and now during the presence and power of the Holy Spirit come down; and man will be tested also under Christ's reign in righteousness, and as Judge of all. And in the eternal state while the earthly people occupy the sin-cleansed earth in unchanging blessedness, the church ― the bride and body of Christ ― shall share the inheritance with the Heir of all things, and shine in heavenly glory throughout all ages. (Eph. 3:21.) Thus in the type Adam could say, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" ― "one flesh," and all the result of the man's "deep sleep," so that she shares with him his dominion and glory. Few chapters have been more thoroughly authenticated by our Lord and His apostles than Genesis 2. On one occasion, when an inspired writer referred to Adam and Eve, he says, "Adam was first formed, then Eve." (1 Tim. 2:13.) This chapter unfolds this to us, and gives most important information as to man's accountability, privileges, and blessings, as well as enters into detail as to what took place on the sixth day. It also gives us the divine institution of marriage, and that man and wife should now typically set forth Christ and the church. (Eph. 5) Had we not all this instruction, in what darkness and uncertainty as to these things should we be; and if men were hearkening to God, and seeking to learn of Him in reading and pondering His holy word, instead of expressing themselves with such temerity and mistaken zeal, the alleged inaccuracies would never have been heard of.

It does not say in the first chapter that Adam and Eve were made at the same time; nor does it say in the second chapter that man was formed before the animals. Each chapter is perfect after its kind. In the first, we have the consecutive account of God having made all in six days, and then rested. In the second chapter we have the moral order of Jehovah Elohim's relationship with man; hence the statement that, man having been formed of the dust of the earth, God breathed into him "the breath of life, and man became a living soul;" his responsibility as to the trees, his dominion, and the blessing of an help-meet, have a more fitting place here than in the first chapter.

But, in creating, God created not a confused and disorderly mass; He created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. The heavens, in fact, were never thrown into confusion — the earth was, as we see in Gen. 1:2; but this was after the beginning: how long is not said. Thousands or millions of years may have elapsed. It answered no moral end to reveal what science would investigate or conjecture. Only it is revealed, as befitting the divine character, that He is not a God — not a creator — of confusion. The confusion of the earth was subsequent, the reason or cause being unexplained as the interval or the history. The fact is distinctly revealed; and nobody would have failed to discern it, if philosophers had not misled the divines who are vain of standing well with the men of science. Geologists differ fundamentally to this day: some insisting on catastrophes, followed by renewals; others contending for continuous action of forces gradually operating. If there be a measure of truth in both, scripture leaves room for all, without straining the six days, which are wholly distinct from the immense ages that preceded man.

Days and weeks and years have to do with the human race and God's moral dealings on earth, after God had created and destroyed — it may be, many times — within those vast periods differently characterised before man was made, though not without a beneficent design for him on God's part. The principle and the fact, first of creation, then of disruption, before the immediate preparation of the world for the race, is the revealed communication of Gen. 1:1-2; the days, 1:3 - 2:3, are the commencement of time as we reckon it, not of creation, but of that later and special form when man was ushered into the earth. On the first, God said, "Light be;" and light was. It is not intimated that light was then first created. The previous ruin may have hindered its action till God uttered this fiat with a view to man's earth. On the second day, with the severing of land and sea, came the expanse as we have it (strangely rendered by the Seventy, whence "firmament" came through the Vulgate into the English version); on the third, the vegetable kingdom, herbage and tree yielding fruit; on the fourth, the luminaries in the expanse, not first created but set to give light night and day on the earth; on the fifth, animal life begun in the waters and for the air.

You remember God created the world by His word, but "the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed." The LORD God made beautiful trees and fruit for food and the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden. Also there was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. "A river went out of Eden to water the garden." (Gen. 2:7-10) The LORD God put the man Adam in the garden to dress it and keep it. "The LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." The LORD God made him sleep, and took out one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh. The LORD God used the rib bone of the man to make a woman. He brought her to the man, and Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." So a man should leave his father and mother and cling closely to his wife: the two shall be one. What a wonderful way for God to make the first man and woman! Just so, the Lord Jesus, "the last Adam" to get His bride went into a "deep sleep", that means, He died on the cross. "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it." This is a deep secret. (Eph. 5:23-32).

Because Genesis 1 throughout used the name of God (Elohim), and Genesis 2 employs the names, the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim), Jean Astruc (1753), a profligate French physician, started the theory that Genesis was composed by two authors. He did not grasp the plain fact that Genesis 1 gives us the story of the creation of the world, and, following a state of chaos into which the original creation had fallen, its reconstruction. Therefore the name of God (Elohim) was suitable. But when we come to Genesis 2, the narrative is centred on the creation of man and woman. It is not the story of creation in detail. Nothing is said of the six days of reconstruction. Verse 5 tells us of God's provision for the food of man; verse 6 how fertility was sustained by the watering of the earth with a mist; verse 7 gives us the creation of man; verses 8 to 15, the arrangement for his habitation; verses 21 to 25 the creation of Eve, the helpmeet for Adam. Now Jehovah is the name God takes in relation to His creatures. It is His covenant name. How fitting that the name Jehovah should be added to that of Elohim.

In Genesis 1 it is simply "God" that we see and hear. It is "God" Who goes through the six days' work, and then rests on the seventh. But in Genesis 2 it is "the Lord God" that we see and hear. And these are two stages in God's revelation of Himself. In the first chapter we see Him coming forth as God simply, for His own delight and glory. He takes His full delight in the work, beholding it all to be very good, and He glorifies Himself by the work, setting over it one in His own image, the representative of Himself. But in the second chapter we see "the Lord God," that is, God in a covenanted character, God entered upon purposes and plans for the blessing of His creature. And, therefore, much of the previous detail of the work, as it proceeded under the hand of "God," is omitted, and many things are brought into view which had no place before. Thus we have, in strong relief, and which we had not at all in the first chapter, the Garden and the River, the manner of creating the Man, of investing him with dominion, of forming the Woman, and of instituting their union — and we have also the mystic Trees, and the Commandment with its penalty — for all these concerned the place and blessing of the creature in covenant with "the Lord God."*