1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; 5 and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6 “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the 8 firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for 15 signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
QUESTIONS.
(1) Who is the first person mentioned in the Bible? What is He there represented as doing? At what time? V. 1. Note 1. (2) In what condition was the earth? In what was the earth shrouded? What moved upon the waters? V. 2. (3) What was God’s first command, and what was the result? V. 3. Note 2. (4) Who saw the light, and what did He say of it? Could the light and darkness dwell together? V. 4. (5) What did He call the light? What the darkness? What constituted the first day? V. 5. What has constituted every day since then? Note 3. (6) What was God’s second command? What was the result? Vs. 6, 7. (7) On what day was this work done? V. 8. (8) What was God’s third command? With what result? V. 9. (9) What was the dry land called? What was the gathering together of the waters called? What was the character of this work? V. 10. (10) What was God’s fourth command? What was the result? What is said in reference to this work? Vs. 11, 12. (11) What day of creation week is now past? V. 13. (12) What command was given on the fourth day? V. 14. (13) Where were these lights placed, and for what purpose were they made? Vs. 14–18. (14) What other lights did God make? V. 16. Note 4. (15) On what day did God place the lights in the firmament? V. 19.
SUGGESTIVE READINGS.
Chapter on “The Literal Week” in “Christian Education,” pp. 190–197; also in “Patriarchs and Prophets,” pp. 111–116. “The Gospel in Creation,” pp. 13–124.
NOTES.
1. The first verse of the Bible reveals God as Creator; the last, as Redeemer; and both, like every verse between the two, reveal Him as He is, a God of love. To fallen man the Gospel in creation becomes the Gospel of salvation. But lost man may not see God in the book of nature either as Creator or as Redeemer; therefore, God in His mercy and love has given him the book of Revelation. But even here man sees only in part. In Gen. 1:1 are revealed the deep things of God in mysteries. “In the beginning”—who can tell just when?—“God”—who can find Him out unto perfection?—“Created”—who can explain the secret of the process?—“the heaven and the earth”—who has comprehended their range or their glory? But this is the Christian’s God. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all;” and yet, “clouds and darkness are round about Him.” By hiding He reveals Himself. His works and His manner of working are mysteries. He has robed all nature in garments which man can not fully rend: “Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways; and how small a whisper do we hear of Him! but the thunder of His power who can understand?” Job 26:14, R. V. In this connection read “God in Nature,” by Mrs. E. G. White, as recorded in General Conference Bulletin for 1897, No. 5, pp. 73, 74; or in “Special Testimonies on Education,” pp. 56–62.
2. It is not beyond the power of faith to see that when He who is the light of the whole universe, in whom there is no darkness at all, who dwelleth in the light unapproachable, and in whose presence the sun is ashamed, was present, and said, “Let there be light, and there was light,” that it should exist even before the sun was made on the fourth day. It is not hard for the child of trust to believe that He who now uses the sun to cause the “grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man,” should by His own light cause the grass, herbs, and trees to spring forth in a single day, carpeting the whole earth with living green, lofty trees, and magnificent flowers.
3. The infinite power of Him who upholds all the numberless worlds in limitless space, may not be called in question by finite man. To the Christian it is not a thing incredible that God should make this world and our solar system in just six days of twenty-four hours each, and in just the order named in the Mosaic record. On the contrary, it is just what we would expect of Him, that He should do a definite work in a definite time. For “He taketh up the isles as a very little thing,” and the nations are to Him “as the small dust of the balance.” It is in perfect harmony with His manner of working when upon the earth, in the healing of diseases and in the performance of the miracles of bread and wine, and of stilling the waves of the sea. It is just what we would expect of Him who takes note of the fall of the sparrow as well as the fall of the world. Our earth, compared with the universe of worlds, is, as it were, but a grain of sand upon the seashore. God has not revealed to us the process of creation further than that “He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast;” and this is enough so that by faith we may understand.
4. The expression “the stars also,” calls attention to the fact that God made the stars as well as the sun and the moon. The names of the planets which revolve around our sun, in the order of their distances from it, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
