Genesis 1: In the Beginning... GOD!

Journey through the Book of Genesis with me.  The plan is simple. Read ONE chapter a day. Blog or journal 5* things you learned that you previously didn't know and ask 5* questions about the chapter that you'll ponder all week. Let's go!

** You'll probably learn way more than 5 things and have more than 5 questions about each chapter. That's totally fine. The more the merrier! 

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Genesis 1:1-31

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1: What took place prior to, "In the beginning"? Based on Job 38:4-7, at a minimum, we know the angels were observing this act of creation and throwing a viewing party.

QUESTION 2: Where was "Jesus" in the beginning? How does Colossians 1:16 answer the question? "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. "

QUESTION 3: When God created the other "stars" (v.16), did He also create other lifeforms on them? But simply didn't bother to include details about them in the text just as He didn't bother to include the details of the creation of other planets?

QUESTION 4: Does "Great sea creatures" in verse 21 and "every living creature" include dinosaurs? Leviathan? Verse 4 mentions that God also created "every creeping thing" (v.24). So, God is the creator of everything from the tiny silkworm to the hundred foot blue whale?

QUESTION 5: If the earth was created in perfect condition, "it was good", why did Adam need to "subdue" it? (Perhaps subdue in this context doesn't imply overcoming a difficulty, but simply to maintain? Keep what's already in good condition great?) 

QUESTION 5b: What did it look like day-to-day for Adam and Eve to have "dominion" over things like, "the fish of the sea (including the great sea creatures)', the "birds of the heavens", the "live stock", and the "creeping things?"

WHAT I LEARNED

INSIGHT 1:  The Spirit of God "hovering" over the face of the waters indicates something exciting is about to go down! (kinda like the moments in Acts 2 right before the Holy Spirit came upon the Church "..like the blowing of a violent wind..").

INSIGHT 2: Prior to the 2nd act of creation, the world seemed to be a watery deep mess, but when God calls forth an "expanse", like an explosion deep in the seas, a ginormous bubble of "space" begins to separate the waters from the waters below (v.8 - "God called the space “sky.”)

INSIGHT 3: On day 3, God begins to create things that can reproduce themselves, a pattern that continues in different instructions throughout scripture - v.22. ("...be fruitful and multiply...")

INSIGHT 4: On day 4, though our earth, moon, and stars are the focus of the narrator, the end of verse 16, "...and the stars" show that on day 4, God also created the 400 billion+ stars in our milky way galaxy, along with the 125 billion galaxies in the known universe (lots went on that day than what we read). Furthermore, God calls each star by name (Isaiah 40:26), just as He knows "earth" by name.

INSIGHT 5: God created mankind to rule in His stead. We're to "make" more people who too make more people ("...fill the earth and increase..."). Sidenote: Adam was created to be a vegetarian, and so were animals (I am not smiling at this! Where's the beef?)

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