Genesis 1:1-31

Genesis
Chapter 1

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¹ In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,

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² the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

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Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

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God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness.

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³ God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." Thus evening came, and morning followed--the first day.

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Then God said, "Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other." And so it happened:

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God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it.

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God called the dome "the sky." Evening came, and morning followed--the second day.

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Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear." And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared.

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God called the dry land "the earth," and the basin of the water he called "the sea." God saw how good it was.

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Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." And so it happened:

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the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was.

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Evening came, and morning followed--the third day.

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Then God said: "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years,

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and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth." And so it happened:

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God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars.

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God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth,

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to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.

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Evening came, and morning followed--the fourth day.

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Then God said, "Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky." And so it happened:

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God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. God saw how good it was,

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and God blessed them, saying, "Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth."

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Evening came, and morning followed--the fifth day.

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Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds." And so it happened:

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God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it was.

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⁴ Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."

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God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.

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God blessed them, saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth."

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God also said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;

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and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food." And so it happened.

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God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed--the sixth day.

Reflection: My thoughts on the above passage are written after I copied the Word. I have read it and re-read the Chapter. I prayed about the passage. I even slept on this for a short time and then read it again. A few things stand out to me. One being that the first story of creation doesn't end at the end of Chapter one. To me that seams wrong. I wonder why. I wonder what would cause them to break the story in the fashion that they did to leave off the 7Th day.

I imagine that as the first children of the world turned to their parents and asked, "Where did we come from?", and "How did we get here?" Those parents would respond with a story that had been told and retold. It strikes me that the words that are chosen refer to God but do not introduce Him. It isn't like other literature where the main character is described. Here it is almost understood who God is. I know that we grow to know who He is through the stories but here we see the awesomeness of God the creator. Maybe I already know Him and love Him so I just read it with that in mind.

I love that after each aspect of creation God reflects, for our purpose I am sure, on all that He had done. His conclusion is that it was good until the creation of men then it was very good. God has loved man since our creation. He wanted us in His image and likeness. He then looks at us and says that we are very good. Man kind is given the earth. We are told to take care of it. This doesn't scare God or give Him cause for concern. We don't read that he knows we will ruin it someday. I think mankind has become so arrogant. We have forgotten the awesomeness of God and began to believe that we have power over nature. How silly. God is in charge, he regulates all for our benefit and we would be better to trust in that.

I plan to spend that day looking at all the gifts that God has given me and reflect on how God would see it's goodness! Maybe as I try to look at it with His eyes I will be more positive, because he knows that it is good. What did you get out of this passage?