Genesis 1 Raw Notes

(Read Genesis 1)

I took a lot of notes as I read Genesis or considered any of the sources that commented on Genesis. Many of those notes became the articles that were posted yesterday. Some of my notes remained a mess of thoughts.

These are the raw notes from Genesis 1 that are left over after I gleaned all my other articles and sermon notes from them. I have not edited them for clarity, or even to make sure they’re all correct. These are nothing more than raw reflections typed in the moments I thought of them. Perhaps something in here may spark an interesting idea or new perspective for someone else.

God said...
And it was so.
And God saw that it was good.
Be fruitful and multiply
God made plants to bear seeds and bear fruit
Let Us make man in Our image
God is fruitful and creative
God created a world that he intended to be fruitful and creative
God makes order out of disorder. He does make something out of nothing (Col 1:16-17), but here he is revealed as taking that which has no purpose, and assigning to it value and purpose.
Let there be light! God called the light DAY. It was TIME that he created first. A period of light. Light is called light for the rest of the chapter, but days are called days. Before God created anything else, he created time to contain it. He made time orderly and functional, measured by day and night.
Sun and Moon are not named. The Hebrew words for Sun and Moon are also the names of Gods. God is the only God. None came before, none after.
Creation feels like art or an experiment.
How about moving all the land and water? That is good!
How about plants? That is good, too! People? Very good!
God makes major things, then plants, and back to major things.
God sovereignly and ultimately made everything from nothing. There was no competition, distraction, tension, or difficulty. He did it alone. No other gods helped. No pantheon was consulted. No lesser or evil god interfered. No other gods were created. Sovereign YHWH God acted alone, and everything was created exactly as he intended, when he intended. And it was all good.
God does what he wants in the natural world. Everything has a supernatural cause, and he is it. Natural causes, such as photosynthesis, are to be regarded, but even those natural phenomena have their first cause in God. If God decides a plant will not grow, nothing we do will make it grow. God is sovereign.
Everything in creation is about God. It starts with God, and is sustained by God. God needn't supernaturally intervene, any more than a professor would intervene in the middle of a lecture she gives. It is all from God, by God.
Creation is not the Creator. Creation is subject to God. It is subject to him. It is not his essence.
The image of God remains with humans after the fall (Gen 9:6).
vv27 (and 2:24)