Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible begins by talking about nature? There certainly could have been other possible ways to introduce the beginning of God’s written word. It could have began, like other Ancient Near East accounts, with descriptions of God’s activities before the creation of the world, providing caricatures of him in a primordial state, or perhaps with a lengthy treatise on his character. But God did not intend for us to first learn about him in a void. Rather, Genesis 1 and 2 set the stage for seeing God in nature, God creating nature and God over nature. This is our first perception of God as well as our first perception of nature. The two are immediately linked right from the beginning.

And this is why we can also read a theology of nature in Genesis 1. The creation account is not meant to be read as a scientific document, depicting how long God took to create the cosmos. Rather, the main point of this first story is to help us, as readers, gain an appropriate understanding of who God, the creator of nature, is.

God, the Creator of Nature

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2)

The writer of Genesis shows that God is sovereign over creation in that He alone exists before creation and He alone eliminates the deep, dark, watery conditions of the earth (Genesis 1:2).[1] 

Readers can observe the active agency of God in His creative actions as the Spirit hovers over the waters. God is the agent who creates the world and everything in it, and it’s noteworthy that God has no rivals in this endeavor. When compared with other ANE cosmogonies where the gods battle, and the winning god(s) are then enthroned, Genesis 1 emphatically states that the LORD has never been in competition with anyone nor did He ever have to be enthroned since He has always reigned supreme. God has always been sovereign! 

This opening scene also demonstrates that the LORD is the only God over creation. In contrast to the moon and sun gods in the ancient Near East, particularly those of the Egyptian pantheon, which the Israelites would be familiar with, the LORD is God alone. Moreover, Genesis 1 is completely distinct from other ANE cosmogonies in that it does not offer a theogony (i.e., the creation of various gods).[2] There are no other gods at all in Genesis 1. Since the LORD created the sun, moon, and stars (Gen 1:14-19), these objects are not gods, as in the many ANE pantheons.[3] The two great lights in the sky are merely physical objects.

“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (Genesis 1:3-5)

In addition, the lights in the sky serve humanity to give light; it is not the other way around.[4]  This is quite notable since the first readers (really hearers) were the Israelites who had come out of Egypt in the Exodus, where these lights in the sky were worshipped and served by Egyptians.  Genesis 1 is thus an intentional polemic against the ANE deities.[5] The point is that God is superior to these other ANE gods and that He is independent of creation. God alone is the external cause of the cosmos’ existence, function, and purpose. Everything exists because God calls them into existence. The LORD indeed is God alone!

The Perfection of Nature

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:1-4)

Genesis 1-2 serve to portray the actions of God in a glorious, awesome light. This opening story is more than a literary prelude to the stories that follow. Yes, it is the story behind every story, but it is also more. In other words, the exquisite composition of the passage beautifies the events it records. 

To perceive this we have to keep in the mind the significance of the number seven in the ancient world.  For the ANE and the Israelites, the number seven was a symbol of completion and perfection. Interestingly, Genesis 1:1-2:3 is filled with the number seven and its multiples.

For example, creation was completed in seven days, which is told across seven Hebrew paragraphs; the opening verse of the book (Gen 1:1) consists of seven Hebrew words; the phrase “it was so” appears seven times; the word “good” is used seven times; “earth” is utilized twenty one times; the “heavens” occur twenty one times; “God” is employed thirty five times; day seven (Gen 2:1-3) entails thirty five Hebrew words; and every clause where “seventh” day appears is comprised of seven Hebrew words (2:2-3a).

These allusions to seven are not coincidental. The biblical writer is communicating through this incredibly composed text that God’s creative actions are glorious and indeed perfect.

There is much we can learn about God and nature from reading Genesis 1 and 2. God is the one and only creator of nature, and everything he has created and continues to create within the natural order is good.

Genesis 1 and 2 set the stage for seeing God in nature, God creating nature and God over nature Click To Tweet

—

[1] As mentioned above, these original conditions of the earth would have made sense for the ancient Israelite.  God merely uses this category of the ANE to begin His story of creation.

[2] See Enuma Elish.  Many other ANE creation accounts are devoted to theogony

[3] According to the Egyptian pantheon the sun god, Re, is the strongest and most revered.  According to their cosmogony, the sun god defeats darkness, which is why Re is the chief god.

[4] The lights serve as markers for the cycles of nature and weather (Gen 1:14).  Some scholars even suggest that these markers have liturgical purposes, namely, the lights regulate the liturgical calendar for Israel.

[5] Scholars have noted that the use of “greater light” and “lesser light” intentionally avoids the Hebrews words for sun and moon, which were the ordinary names of the sun and moon deities.  This choice is, doubtless, a critique against these supposed deities common in the ANE systems (e.g., Sin, the moon god, was one of the chief gods in Mesopotamia).