Genesis 1:3-5

GENESIS—NOTE ON Genesis 1:3 And God said. God’s absolute power is seen in that he merely speaks and things are created. Each new section of ch. Genesis 1:1 is introduced by God’s speaking. Everything that God speaks into being is good (vv. Genesis 1:10, Genesis 1:12, Genesis 1:18, Genesis 1:21, Genesis 1:25, Genesis 1:31). These verses show how God has arranged time in a weekly cycle (Day... Night). God is pictured as working for six days and resting on the seventh, which is a model for human activity. Day 4 will develop this idea further: the lights are placed in the heavens for signs and seasons, for marking days and years and the times of the festivals, such as Passover. This sense of time having a structure is further emphasized as each stage of God’s creative work is separated into specific days. there was evening and there was morning, the first day. After each workday there is an evening and then a morning, implying that there is a nighttime (the worker’s daily time of rest) in between. Similar phrases divide ch. Genesis 1:1 into six distinctive workdays, with Genesis 2:1 being a seventh day, God’s Sabbath. On the first three days God creates the environment that the creatures of days 4–6 will inhabit. For example, the sea and sky (day 2) are occupied by the fish and birds (day 5). These days can be understood as days in the life of God, but how his days relate to human days is more difficult to determine (see 2 Peter 3:8).