Bible Study: Genesis 1

Commentary

(1-5) We see in the first three verses the three distinct Persons of God: the Father and Creator, the Word, and the Spirit. The Father creates the heavens and the earth through his Word (his Son, known as Jesus in the flesh), and creation is moved and permeated by a mighty wind (3) translated literally as the "Spirit of God". The first words God speaks bring into being light, so from the beginning, the Word of God has been "light". In Psalm 90:2, we read that God has been God and God has existed from eternity to eternity. In 2 Maccabees 7:28, a mother tells her son to gaze at the heavens and know that God is their source of existence, just as He is the source of our existence. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author writes that it was through the Son of God (who is the Word made flesh) that the Father brought the universe into being.

(11-12) I forgot to mention this before... in a thread on ChristianForums.com about spiritual messages in Genesis 1, I mentioned the third day of creation:

I find that the third day in Genesis is a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Jesus.

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: 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. (Genesis 1:11-12)

In the context of John 12:24 ("Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.") I think it prophesies the abundance of life that comes from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

(26-31) God has created morning, evening, water, earth, sky, plants, and animals, and finally He creates man in our image, after our likeness (26). This "image" of God is not merely our most generic form. We have the characteristics of God: creativity, mastery, a desire to be loved freely, and a will of our own. God made us, male and female, for us to inhabit the earth and control it -- but not to abuse it. The charge that we are to multiply and subdue the earth is echoed in Genesis 9:1, after Noah and his family leave the ark. In Wisdom 2:23, the author writes that God made man in the image of His own nature. We read in Psalm 8:6-9 that the state of man is close to that of a god, crowned with glory and honor, ruling over the things God has made on the earth. Psalm 115:16 echoes that: heaven is God's, but He has given the earth to us.