The Bible begins by introducing the main character of the entire story. This story is not about humanity. It’s about God, and he’s the hero from beginning to end. From here on out, the Bible will focus on revealing who this God is and why he is worthy of our love and devotion. Although humans naturally want to force an understanding of Scripture that centers on humanity and the world around us, the Bible is God’s story.

But those considered biblical “heroes,” like Moses, David, Daniel, and Paul, are not even the heroes of their own stories. Moses should have been thrown into the Nile at birth, David should have been a shepherd his whole life, Daniel should have been eaten by lions, and Paul should have remained Saul, a murderer bent on destroying the church. But their stories changed when God intervened.

Throughout the Bible, everything is wrong until God intervenes. Sometimes he fixes the situation through his human representatives. Often he does so despite them. Usually they’re the ones who caused the problem in the first place. The problems vary greatly, but God is always the solution. As he intervenes in his people’s lives, the revelation of his nature and character progressively unfolds. He is powerful, just, loving, merciful, and unique. He is the hero of every story, and that is still true today.

The Creator

In the beginning, God created the earth and the sky.

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“In the beginning, God created the earth and the sky.” The Bible begins with such a simple statement. Yet it contains one of the most revolutionary ideas in the entire Bible. Israel’s polytheistic neighbors all worshiped the earth, the sky, and the various creatures in them as gods themselves. But in one sentence, Genesis uncovers the folly of every religious system that worships the created over the Creator.

God alone created the universe and everything in it, and he alone deserves our worship. The text does not describe him or attempt to explain his existence. He simply is, and he is the source of everything else the world calls “gods.”

The Raw Material of Creation

Now the earth was barren and empty, and darkness covered the surface of the deep.

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Before God began creating the universe, the earth was tohu wabohu (“barren and empty”). It was shrouded by darkness, covered with water, empty, and unable to sustain life. Elsewhere, the Hebrew word tohu describes deserts and ruins, idols and those who make them, as well as false testimony. It doesn’t mean the earth had no form. It means it had no worth or purpose. It was not yet a suitable home for God’s creation.

The text does not state exactly how the primordial watery deep came to be. It probably skips this detail because it was merely the raw material from which God would bring forth his masterpiece, beginning with the creation of light and the dawn of the first day.

The Spirit above the Water

But the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water.

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As creation began, the Spirit of God hovered over the deep water that covered the earth. Although some translations render the Hebrew ruah ʾelohim (“Spirit of God”) as a strong wind, this does not fit the context or the use of the phrase elsewhere.¹ Wind doesn’t hover.

The concept of God’s empowering Spirit is far from unique to the New Testament. The Spirit is an extension of God himself, sent to empower the accomplishment of his will on earth. He can work on his own, as here, but more often he works through God’s servants. The ruah ʾelohim enabled Bezalel to make the chest of the testimony and the tent of meeting,² forced Balaam to bless Israel when Balak hired him to curse them,³ and inspired a young Saul to perform the deeds that led to his crowning.⁴

God’s Spirit hovered above the watery chaos of the earth like a skilled potter over a lump of clay. The Creator was poised and ready to get to work on his masterpiece: a home worthy of his beloved.

Inhabitable and Inhabited

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Over six days, God took the barren and empty earth and transformed it into a vibrant paradise. The six days of creation have a parallel structure. The first day parallels the fourth; the second, the fifth; and the third, the sixth. Through the two sets of three days, God addressed the initial problem of the earth being barren and empty. During the first set of three days, God made the barren earth inhabitable. During the second set of three days, he made the empty earth inhabited.⁵

For three days, God created suitable habitations for all kinds of different creatures and set boundaries for each one. On the first day, he divided day from night. On the second day, he divided sky from sea. On the third day, he divided sea from dry ground. By the end of the third day, the earth was no longer barren. It was inhabitable.

For another three days, God created the creatures who would live in each habitation. On the fourth day, he created the sun to inhabit the day and the moon to inhabit the night. On the fifth day, he created birds to inhabit the sky and fish to inhabit the sea. On the sixth day, he created the land animals, including humans, to inhabit the dry ground. By the end of the sixth day, the earth was no longer empty. It was inhabited.

Every area created in the first three days found its purpose as a home filled with its assigned part of creation. Everything in creation had its place subject to God’s created order.

The First Day of Creation

God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. God saw the light was good. Then he divided the light from the darkness. He named the light “day” and the darkness “night.” Then evening came, followed by morning. This was a first day.

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“Let there be light” constituted the necessary first step in the creation process. As the first day dawned, God set time itself in motion, and the day/night cycle began. Although Jews have long measured a day from sunset to sunset, Genesis 1 depicts a day that begins at dawn.

During this first period of daylight, God divided the light from the darkness and named them both. He also passed the first judgment in the Bible, judging the light to be good. But he did not judge the darkness. Nonetheless, the night obeyed its Creator by taking its ordained place from evening to morning, providing a break between God’s creative acts.

The Length of a Day

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The Hebrew word yom (“day”) refers to a period of time, but the exact length of that period can vary. Genesis 1:5 alone shows that just like the English word “day,” yom can mean both a twelve-hour period of “daytime” and a full twenty-four-hour “day.” In certain limited contexts, it can also refer to a general time period of indefinite length.⁶

This ambiguity has led some to question the biblical teaching of a six-day creation. However, the context of Genesis 1 does not allow for reading yom as “time period.” First, the six days of creation are numbered. Indefinite time periods cannot be counted. When numbered, yom always refers to a twenty-four-hour day. Second, the refrain “evening came, followed by morning” removes all doubt. Indefinite time periods don’t have an evening and a morning. Those are parts of a day.

Genesis 1 unambiguously teaches a six-day creation with God in full control of every step of the process.

The Second Day of Creation

Then God said, “Let there be a covering in the middle of the water to divide the waters!” And God made the covering and divided the water under it from the water above it. And it was just as he said. He named the covering “sky.” Then evening came, followed by morning. This was a second day.

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On the second day, God divided the watery deep to create the sky and set it above the earth. He created a raqiaʿ in the middle of the water to hold part of the water above the part that remained on earth. He named the raqiaʿ, clearly equating it with the sky. He passed no judgment, making the second day the only day when God did not declare his creation good.

The Hebrew word raqiaʿ derives from a verb that means “to beat, spread out” and often refers to pounding metal into flat sheets.⁷ This does not mean the Israelites thought the sky was solid. But like a metal overlay spread out over a wooden object, the sky spreads out to cover the earth. It holds up a portion of the earth’s water in the form of clouds. This separated water sometimes rains down to return to the earth, a concept that will become important in the story of the flood.⁸

The Third Day of Creation

Then God said, “Let the water under the sky gather together so dry ground appears!” And it was just as he said. He named the dry ground “land” and the gathered water “seas.” God saw it was good.

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout new growth: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees producing seed-bearing fruit, each according to its own kind!” And it was just as he said. The earth brought forth new growth: seed-bearing plants, each according to its own kind, and trees producing seed-bearing fruit, each according to its own kind. God saw it was good. Then evening came, followed by morning. This was a third day.

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The third day of creation contains a double creative act. First, God divided the land from the sea, creating dry ground. Then, he commanded the land to produce different kinds of plants. For the first time God invited something else, the earth itself, to participate in creation.

The dry ground would not be inhabited until day six, yet it already produced lush vegetation. God did not intend plants as the inhabitants of the dry ground. Rather, he made them as part of the dry ground, without which the dry ground would not be inhabitable. The creation of vegetation completed the creation of the dry ground by making it a suitable habitation for land animals.

According to Its Kind

The earth brought forth new growth: seed-bearing plants, each according to its own kind, and trees producing seed-bearing fruit, each according to its own kind.

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The refrain “each according to its own kind,” referring to reproducing plants and animals, occurs ten times in Genesis 1. The Hebrew word for “kind” does not equate to the scientific term “species” and refers to more general categories. Any two species that can successfully reproduce belong to the same “kind.” But while Genesis does not claim God created every species in existence today during the first week, it does claim he divided plants and animals into distinct groups when he created them.

Each group would associate with and reproduce with members of the same group, resulting in offspring belonging to that same group. The seeds of an apple will always grow an apple tree, never an orange tree. The different groups have a common Creator but not a common ancestor.

The Fourth Day of Creation

Then God said, “Let there be lamps in the sky covering to divide day from night! They will serve as signs of appointed times, days, and years. And they will serve as lamps in the sky covering to light the earth.” And it was just as he said.

God made the two great lamps, the greater one to govern the day and the lesser one to govern the night. He also made the stars. Then God placed them in the sky covering to light the earth, to rule the day and the night, and to divide light from darkness. God saw it was good. Then evening came, followed by morning. This was a fourth day.

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The fourth day dawned on a lush paradise fit for habitation but with nothing to inhabit it. It was no longer barren, but it was still empty. So God began the work of creating the many creatures that would inhabit his new world.

As he divided day from night on the first day, on the fourth day he created the “inhabitants” of the day and night: the sun, moon, and stars. He assigned the sun and the moon the job of lighting the earth and governing the day/night cycle and the passage of time. For the first time, God did not name his new creation. In fact, the Hebrew words for “sun” and “moon” do not appear anywhere in the creation story. They are simply called “lamps.” God named the elements of creation itself but left the naming of the creatures to humanity.⁹

Light before the Sun

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On the first day of creation, God created light. However, he did not create the sun until the fourth day. Since daylight comes from the sun, how could light exist first?

Despite the claim that the existence of light before the sun contradicts modern science, there’s nothing “modern” about the idea that light comes from the sun. In fact, Genesis 1:14–19 agrees with science that the sun and moon “light the earth” and “divide day from night.” But it emphasizes that they do so not by their own power but only in obedience to God’s command.

Before the sun and moon existed, God created and controlled the day/night cycle himself. On the fourth day, he created the sun and moon and placed them in the sky to act as his stewards in this function, just as it is today. But even though light comes from the sun now, that doesn’t mean that it always has in the past or that it always will in the future. Both Isaiah 60:19 and Revelation 22:5 claim the light that predates the sun will also outlast it. As Revelation states: “Night will no longer exist. They won’t need the light of a lamp or the sun because the Lord God will give them light.”

When Moses wrote Genesis, the sun and moon were some of the highest gods worshiped in the Near East. They were worshiped precisely because everyone understood them to be the primary sources of life-giving light. Indeed, the entire creation story seems to deliberately mock the worship of natural phenomena that God created and set in motion.

Genesis 1 doesn’t deny that light comes from the sun. Instead, it emphatically claims that God alone is the ultimate source of light, life, and every good thing. He can create light without the sun, but the sun can’t create light except by his command. Moses’s generation had witnessed God stop the light of the sun for three days. Yet, they themselves had light.¹⁰ Far from an inconsistency, the creation of daylight before the creation of the sun further reveals the nature of the only God worthy of our devotion.

The Fifth Day of Creation

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with swarms of living creatures! And let birds fly above the earth across the sky covering!” God created the great beasts of the sea and all the living creatures that glide through the water, with which the waters abound, each according to its own kind. And he made all the winged birds, each according to its own kind. God saw it was good.

He blessed them, “Be fruitful and increase, filling the water in the seas! And let the birds increase on the earth!” Then evening came, followed by morning. This was a fifth day.

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On the second day, God divided the sky from the sea. On the fifth, he created inhabitants for both. He filled the sea with all kinds of fish and marine mammals and the sky with all kinds of birds. God again stepped back to survey his creation and declared the results of his labors to be good.

The fifth day introduced a new step in the creation process. For the first time, God blessed his creation. The context of the blessing clearly emphasizes procreation, a theme that continues throughout Genesis. He blessed the animals with offspring and increasing numbers. This blessing distinguishes animal life from plant life. On the third day, God made plants and gave them the ability to procreate through their seed, but he did not bless them. This suggests a more utilitarian purpose for the procreation of plants, which God intended as food.

The Sixth Day of Creation

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures, each according to its own kind: livestock, creatures that glide along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its own kind!” And it was just as he said. God made the wild animals, each according to its own kind, the livestock, each according to its own kind, and creatures that glide along the ground, each according to its own kind. God saw it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make humanity as our image to be like us! They will rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and the animals—over all the earth and every creature that moves upon it.”

God created humanity as his own image.
As the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.

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Parallel to the third day, the sixth day also contains a double creative act. As God created dry ground on the third day, on the sixth he created its intended inhabitants: land animals and humans. God gave them the plants and trees as food. Just as plants are a part of the ground yet distinct from it, humans are a part of the land animals yet distinct from them.

God made all kinds of land animals, both big and small, wild and tame. Again, he judged his new creation to be good. As his last creative act, he made a special land animal called ʾadam (“human, humanity”). He made two of these special creatures, one male and one female. As God’s own image, they would act as the representatives of his authority on earth.

Subduing the Earth

God blessed [humanity], “Be fruitful and increase, filling the earth and subduing it! Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every living creature that moves upon the earth!”

Then God said, “I give you all the seed-bearing plants that cover the earth and all the trees that produce seed-bearing fruit. These are for you to eat. And to all the living creatures of the earth—every bird of the sky and every living creature that moves upon the earth—I give all the green plants to eat.” And it was just as he said.

God surveyed all he had made. It was very good! Then evening came, followed by morning. This was the sixth day.

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God blessed the male and female ʾadam with both the ability to procreate and the right to rule the earth and its inhabitants. He commanded them to “increase, filling the earth and subduing it.” God intended for them to continue making the earth inhabited and inhabitable.

Initially, though God had made all of creation good, only the small garden in Eden was suitable for human habitation. God assigned the humans the job of expanding the garden by bringing more and more of the earth under their control as their population grew, turning the whole earth into a true paradise.

Finally done, God again stepped back and surveyed his entire creation. It was not just good. It was very good!

The Plurality of God

Then God said, “Let us make humanity as our image to be like us!”

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Genesis 1 presents a monotheistic worldview that sharply contrasts with the polytheism of Israel’s neighbors. However, that emphasis dramatically shifts in Genesis 1:26 when God said, “Let us make humanity as our image to be like us!” Who is “us”?

At this point in the story, the only characters introduced have been God himself, the Spirit, and the newly created animals. Elsewhere, God sometimes discusses his plans with the members of the divine council, but they play no role in the creation story.¹¹ Nor is humanity made as their image.

With no one else there for God to talk to, he must have been talking to himself. Attempts to explain the use of plural pronouns within the rules of Hebrew grammar fall flat. The word ʾelohim (“God” or “gods”) is plural in form, but when it refers to the God of Israel, it usually takes singular verbs and pronouns. The verb “said,” for example, is singular here and throughout the creation story. When God spoke to himself in Genesis 11:17, he used singular pronouns. “Should I hide what I’m doing from Abraham?” What’s the difference here?

No one else was there for God to talk to, and Hebrew grammar cannot explain his use of the plural. This mystery cannot be explained away. In some way, God is simultaneously both singular and plural. There is only one God, yet God is more than one. In fact, God’s strange use of the plural in the context of the creation of humanity is very deliberate and provides a clue into what it means for humanity to be the image of God.

The Image of God

God created humanity as his own image.
As the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.

Image by Filipe Almeida from Unsplash

“God created humanity as his own image.”¹² We are God’s image, meaning in some way, we reflect God. Many theories attempt to explain what it means to be the image of God. But most are speculative and not supported by the context of Genesis 1–2. How is humanity like God? Three conclusions can be drawn from the context of the creation story.

We are relational beings

Genesis 1:26 presents God as somehow simultaneously both singular and plural. Not accidentally, verse 27 presents humanity as also simultaneously singular and plural.¹³

(A) God created (B) humanity (C) as his own image.
(C) As the image of God, (A) he created (B) him.
(C) Male and female, (A) he created (B) them.

In this brief poem, “God created” = “he created” = “he created.” Likewise, “humanity” = “him” = “them” and “as his own image” = “as the image of God” = “male and female.”¹⁴

Our own plurality as male and female reflects our status as the image of God. Genesis 2 shows that the primary purpose of human gender is companionship. Marriage, the ultimate expression of human relationships, when two become one, reflects the unity of God. We desire relationships because we are the image of a relational God.

We have children and build families

The other benefit of human gender is our ability to reproduce. From the very beginning, God commanded his children to go make more children. God builds his family through creation. We build our families through procreation.

We have authority

God also commanded his human children to rule. As God’s representatives, we are responsible for carrying out his will on the earth. Our status as God’s image gives us the right to rule our fellow creatures.

The idea of someone being the image of a deity was not unique to Israelite theology. But only in Israel was all of humanity so designated. Israel’s neighbors viewed only the king as the divine image. This made the king the god’s representative on earth and gave him the authority to rule both the land and the people.¹⁵

The creation of idols reflects the same idea. These images were not meant to look like the gods. Instead they symbolized the gods, and people believed the images were imbued with their power. The presence of a god’s image represented the authority of that god over the surrounding area. Twice the Israelites sinned by creating golden calves to represent Yahweh.¹⁶ But that doesn’t mean they thought Yahweh looked like a calf. Calves and bulls symbolized strength, so the idols were meant to represent the strength of the God who had rescued them from Egypt.

As God’s image, humanity represents God. Once again, Genesis 1 reveals the folly of the pagan worldview of the neighboring nations. The image of God is not an idol but the very human beings who bow down to them. How tragic for the image of the true God to submit to images of false gods!

The Seventh Day of Creation

So the earth, the sky, and everything in them were completed. On the seventh day, God was done with everything he made, so he stopped making everything he made. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he stopped making everything he created.

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Following the pattern of the first six days of creation, the seventh day should have begun with another divine declaration of some new creative act. Instead God declared he was done. The universe was complete, and there was no work left to do. Of course, God actually completed his work by the end of the sixth day, but he set aside the seventh day to commemorate the occasion.

The Hebrew verb shavath (the root of the word “Sabbath”) means “to stop, cease.” God didn’t rest because he was tired. He stopped because he was done.¹⁷ His children now had a perfect home in which to grow and thrive. God had abundantly provided for everything they should ever need.

The seventh day was also the man and woman’s first full day of life. So God took a divine paternity leave to enjoy the presence of his children and the fruits of his labor. He stopped to smell the roses and set aside one day a week for his children to do the same.

The Sabbath rest recognizes that although we have lost paradise, God still abundantly provides all we need. We grow and thrive not because of our own work but because of God’s.

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Genesis 2:4–24 →

By itself, ruah can mean “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind,” but the ruah ʾelohim never refers to wind. See Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon, s.v. “רוּחַ.”
Exodus 31:2–3.
Numbers 24:2–10.
1 Samuel 10:10–11; 11:6–7.
Constable, Genesis, 29.
See The Curse of Death; Genesis 2:4, 17; 6:3; Psalm 86:7.
Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon, s.v. “רׇקַע.”
See Uncreation.
See Naming the Animals.
Exodus 10:21–23.
See 1 Kings 22:19–23.
For the translation “as the image of God” instead of “in the image of God,” see Heiser, “Image of God”; 1 Corinthians 11:7.
Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 70.
See Parallelism.
Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 30–31.
Exodus 32:4–5; 1 Kings 12:28.
Constable, Genesis, 52.