PART

2
The Primeval Events
The record of the primeval events, Genesis 1:1–11:26, forms the prologue for the book. It demonstrates convincingly
and graphically the need for God’s blessing in the world; for ever since humankind acquired the knowledge of good and
evil, evil became the dominant force, bringing corruption and chaos into God’s creation and incurring the divine curse. This
prologue explains why God called Abram and inaugurated a program of blessing through his covenant.
The early chapters of Genesis develop several major themes. The introduction to this section records how the Lord
created the universe out of a primordial chaos. The beginning, then, saw a perfect and harmonious creation enjoying the
blessing of God. But a second chaos was ushered in at the fall, and so the Lord made new decrees and provisions for men
and women in the new order. Yet this new order witnessed the spread of sin more than the triumph of good. The Lord
consequently destroyed the world and everything in it, except the recipients of grace. Out of this second watery chaos the
Lord renewed the earth and commissioned the second Adam to begin anew; but before long, sin reared its ugly head and
man fell again. As the human race multiplied, it united in proud rebellion against the Lord. Consequently, the Lord brought
judgment into the world yet again, scattering and hopelessly dividing the human race. At the end of this record of the
constant spread of evil and the corresponding intervention of the Lord, there is no renewal, no new beginning. The reader
is thereby prepared for the call of Abram.

5
The Creation of the Universe by the Word of God
(Gen. 1:1–2:3)
 If the creation around us displays the glory of God (Ps. 19), how much more the account of the origin of that creation
in Genesis! From beginning to end the emphasis in the passage is on God’s sovereign majesty. He is the subject; his actions,
although expressed simply and briefly, are lofty and inspiring. Accordingly, exposition of this section must concentrate on
the nature of God as it is displayed through the work of creation.
To understand the importance of this revelation about God to the theological message of the book requires a knowledge
of its proper contexts. In its historical context the account contrasts radically with other stories of creation in the ancient
Near East. This fact can be appreciated only by studying the ancient records with all their polytheistic and confusing
elements. In fact, a knowledge of pagan religion in general will be helpful in measuring the impact of the creation narrative
on its Israelite audience.
The literary context is, of course, the religious writings of ancient Israel. The account of creation forms the starting
point of the prologue to Genesis, which in turn is the foundation of the whole Pentateuch. In other words, the account is
essentially a theological treatise.
Theological Ideas
The task of the expositor is to discover the main point of the theological treatise. To do so, it is essential to ask why the
new nation of Israel needed to have this material and to have it written as it is. At the outset we observe that the portrayal
of God as the Creator and Sustainer of all life has great bearing on the fact that God was now creating Israel as a new nation
among the nations (Deut. 32:6–9). The God who created Israel as his own people is the sovereign God who created the
universe and all that is in it. The implications would be inescapable: since the theocracy is founded by the sovereign God
of creation, the law, the customs, and the beliefs associated with it are all consonant with the plan of creation. Creation is
thus the theological starting point, explaining what kind of God was establishing his theocracy and how powerful his Word
was in doing so.
Several theological ideas inform this basic theme. First, the text reveals the sovereignty of the God of creation. Since
everything that exists in the universe was made by him, it must therefore be under his control. The impact of this truth in
the ancient world would have been staggering. It was a world plagued by the worship of false gods, who challenged the
Lord for Israel’s affections and allegiance. But those gods were identified with the sun, moon, stars, animals, rivers, and a
host of other things. In short, everything that the pagans worshiped God had made. Consequently, their gods should pose
no real threat to Israel, for the creation must be subject to the Creator. From their beginning the Israelites witnessed how
their sovereign God destroyed the gods of Egypt (Exod. 18:11; Num. 33:4) and then the gods of Canaan (Josh. 10:12–13, if
we assume that the sun and the moon also represented their gods).
Second, the account lays the foundation for the law, God’s Word to his people. If indeed God was before all things and
made everything—including the things pagans worshiped—how foolish it would be to have any gods besides him. If God
made humans as his image to represent him on earth, how foolish it would be to make an image of God. If God himself set
aside one day for rest and sanctified it, should not God’s people who were seeking to please him observe one special day as
well? In numerous ways the law finds its rationale in creation. This idea is strengthened by the fact that God created by his
powerful and authoritative Word. Later, when Israel received “the Word of the Lord,” they knew it was that creative word.
Should they not obey this powerful word, as all creation had? Could they not trust it?
Third, the passage reveals the activity of God in redemption. At the beginning there was darkness over the deep, and
there was waste and void; but at the end there was a marvelous creation at rest, blessed and sanctified by God. This creation
narrative traces how God transformed the chaos into the cosmos, turned darkness into light, and altered that which was
unprofitable to that which was good, holy, and worth blessing. This direction in the passage parallels the direction of the
message in the Pentateuch as a whole, in which God redeems Israel from the darkness and chaos of Egypt and leads them
on toward blessing and rest. The pattern of God’s redemptive work thus first begins to unfold at creation.

Genesis 1:1–2:3, then, confirms the teaching that God, the sovereign Creator, is in fact the Redeemer
and Lawgiver and that he accomplishes his work through his powerful Word.

Structure and Synthesis

Structure
A brief survey of the passage reveals a definite structure in the pattern of six days of creation. The narrative for each
day typically includes the divine speech (“God said”), the statement of the fulfillment of his decree (“and it was so” or “and
there was”), the divine evaluation (“it was good”), and then the concluding sequence (“evening and morning came”).
The seventh day (2:1–3) breaks with this pattern. Here, instead of creation and evaluation, there is finishing, ceasing,
blessing, and sanctifying. The emphasis of the seventh day must then be the perfect completion of all creation. Indeed, the
pattern of the words and clauses seems to underscore this emphasis. There are thirty-five words in the Hebrew text of these
three verses, a multiple of seven. The three middle clauses (2:2a, 2:2b, and 2:3a) in the original have seven words each, and
the adjective “seventh” is within each clause. The reader receives a strengthened impression that the seventh day is a
celebration of completion.
The analysis of the beginning of the account, 1:1–2, has been debated over the years (see appendix 1). The problem
concerns the relationship of the clauses in verse 2 to the statement in verse 1. In the Hebrew text the clause beginning verse
2, “now the earth was waste and void,” clearly begins with a disjunctive (“now,” or some other circumstantial translation)
rather than a conjunctive (“and”) or sequential (“and then”) formation. This construction signifies that verse 2 is not the
result of or a development from verse 1. Consequently, many scholars have posited a gap between the verses, allowing for
the fall of Satan between the original creation and the chaos reported in verse 2. Others would rather take verse 1 as the title
of the entire account of creation, verse 2 as a description of the chaos at the beginning of the creation, and then verse 3 as
the beginning of the work of creation to form the universe as we know it. This view suggests that the creation of our universe
was a recreation following a chaos and that the account of an original creation and the explanation of the chaos are not
provided in Genesis 1—although they are taught elsewhere in Scripture.

Chart 6. Corresponding Activity in the Days of Creation

Formlessness (tōhû) Emptiness (bōhû)

Day Item Created Day Item Created
1 Light with darkness 4 Lights for the day and night
2 Sea and sky 5 Creatures for the water and air
3 Fertile earth 6 Creatures for the fertile earth

It is worth observing that “waste and void” in verse 2 gives a key to the six days of creation, the first three correcting
the waste or formlessness, and the next three correcting the void or emptiness. This division is also attested by the parallelism
between the days (see chart 8). The structure of this chapter thus includes the introduction (1:1–2), the six days of creation
(1:3–31), and then the conclusion (2:1–3).
Summary Message
Out of the darkened chaos God sovereignly and majestically created the entire universe in six days, bringing about
perfect order and abundant fullness for people to enjoy and to rule, and then blessed and sanctified the seventh day, which
marked the completion of creation.
Exegetical Outline
I. Introduction: God, through his Spirit, created the entire universe out of the dark chaos (1:1–2).
A. Title: God created the universe (1).
B. Circumstances: The earth was chaotic and enveloped in darkness, but the Spirit of God was ensuring creation
(2).
II. Development: In six days God, by his powerful Word, called into existence a perfect, harmonious, and fruitful
creation to be enjoyed and ruled by human beings (1:3–31).
A. In three days God brought about order and form through his sovereign creative acts (3–13).
1. Day 1: God created light and sovereignly divided it from the darkness (3–5).
2. Day 2: God created the sky and sovereignly separated the waters above and below it (6–8).
 3. Day 3: God created sea and dry land and sovereignly blessed the earth (9–13).
B. In three more days God brought about fullness and harmony within the created universe through his sovereign
creative acts (14–31).
1. Day 4: God created luminaries in the heavens to govern the temporal order (14–19).
2. Day 5: God created animal life for sea and sky and sovereignly blessed them with fruitfulness (20–23).
3. Day 6: God created animal life for the land and human life to rule over creation and sovereignly blessed
them all with fruitfulness (24–31).
III. Conclusion: God blessed and sanctified the seventh day because on it he ceased from all his creative work (2:1–3).
A. By the seventh day God had completely finished his creative work (1).
B. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day because on it he ceased his work (2–3).