Genesis 1-2

Happy New Year!

Genesis 1

1:2 The earth was formless and empty.  Spoiler alert, God will form it, then fill it.  

1:3-5 God does each day in the same order:  He commands "let there be light", He separates (light from dark), he names "he called the light day and the darkness night").  Some days have a fourth step.  In verse 3, there's an extra - evaluation, "God saw that the light was good".

1:6-8 God commanded an expanse between the waters.  His command made it so.  He separated water above from water below.  He called it sky.

1:9-10  God commanded the water to gather.  He separated water and land.  He named the dry land "earth", and the water spots "seas".  And here he adds a fourth step to each of the rest of the days - he evaluates" And God saw that it was good.

So our steps are: command - separate - name - evaluate.  This is repeated throughout creation, and I'm sure beyond.

1:11-12 God starts filling what he formed here on the 3rd day, he fills the land with vegetation.  Here he commanded but didn't specifically separate or name.  He did call it good. 

1:14-18 God fills what he formed on day 1 in day 2.  He adds sun, moon and stars to the sky.  He gives them a purpose - they have dominion over day and night.  They also separate light from darkness.  Got calls them good.

1:20 God fills what he made in day 2: The water is full of living creatures, and the sky with birds.  And he calls it Good.  He gives the creatures a purpose - be fruitful and multiply.

1:24 God fills what he made in day 3: the earth.  

There's three kinds of creatures: livestock, creeping things and wild animals.  And God calls it good.

So these are the things that God calls good:

Light, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, plants, sea creatures and birds, animals.  these are all things that relate to the world being suitable for humans.  God is calling it Good for us.

1:26-27 God is referred to both as singular and plural.  God makes people both singular and plural too.

1:28 God gives people two purposes - fill the earth, and rule over the fish, birds and creatures.  (Notice that we don't rule over the sun moon and stars).  We have dominion.

1:29 God gives plants for food.  God doesn't give animals for food until after the flood.  We had a long discussion in youth group about how awesome it is that food grows on trees.  it's seriously better than money growing on trees.

1:31 The culmination:  It's very good.

2:2  People's first full day on earth:  The day of rest.  yes.

2:7 This is a closer look at day 6.  God forms man out of dust.  Man comes alive when God breathes life into Him.  (We learn later that death is the separating of the body from the breath)

2:8 Eden was a region.  On the east side of Ededn was a garden.

2:15 Man's purpose in the garden was to tend and keep. He was in charge of gardening and protecting.  He has this authority.

2:19 God gave man the right to name things.  This is one of the ways that man is in the image of God.

2:21-24 Got made man plural from singular.  Now man is both singular and plural - also in the image of God.