For six days, God spoke and the universe came to be. At the end of each day, he looked at what he made and saw it was good. On the sixth day, the persons of the Holy Trinity decided to do something completely different. They made humanity — male and female — in the image of God — perfectly holy. Then he finished his work, saw all that he had made. It was good — very good.
Christians believe God made the world this way for a very simple reason. We believe that the Bible is God’s Word and he was the only one present at creation. For us, this is a first person observation, not just a story. The way God inspired Moses to write the first words of Genesis is very simple, yet majestic Hebrew. Nearly every word and the way they are assembled are learned in the first week or two of studying the language. While not poetry, it is as close to it as Hebrew prose gets.
Hebrew writers weave their prose and poetry using repetition, an “echo” effect, saying the same thing multiple times with differing words, telling stories multiple times while changing up details with each telling and similar techniques. Genesis One sounds almost like a litany in effect.
In the telling of each day’s work, Moses says, “and God said, let there be… and there was… he saw that it was good… there was evening and there was morning, day…” The result is much like a litany used in formal worship. Hear the great mystery of God’s creative work is said simply, so simply that a young child can understand it. And yet, because God is our creator, we never will fully understand it. We wonder, believe him and praise God for his wondrous world.
Other views of creation, some based upon scientific study disagree with this account. Sadly, they cannot be put together. In another post, we will examine why and why that is OK.
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