OUR CREATIVE GOD
Genesis 1:1-31
Genesis 1 is not written to tell us how life began or how the universe came into being. That truth is dealt with in one line: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The first chapter of Genesis instead paints a picture of our Creative God, intimately involved in the act of creation. From a formless void to a universe teeming with lights and an earth teeming with life, God was shown intimately involved — expressing his wishes, making and fashioning large celestial bodies as well as complex and delicate life forms, giving each its place and role in his creation, and stepping back every now and then to view the results of his work — and it was good.
There is a strong emphasis that God’s creation was deemed good by God; not in terms of excellent handiwork for that is a foregone conclusion, but that his creation resonates with God, that it expresses his being and is entirely and completely in harmony with who he is.
The creation of mankind is of course the central reason for his act of creation in the first place. God intended to create man in his image; to have a species of living creatures that has the special divine qualities of love, moral goodness and righteousness, and to have this race rule over his creation.
Mankind always has a special place in God’s heart as a result, so much so when man sinned and corruption entered God’s creation that he had deemed good, God went to the extent of the cross to redeem mankind and thus his creation.
What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.