Gen 1:2-3 | KingComments | STEP | The purpose of the comments is to encourage people to read the Bible. The original web address of the comments is www.kingcomments.com. The comments are intended to help you study the Bible personally. The Bible quotations written in full are taken from the New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995, with permission. The comments on Job, Psalms and Isaiah are written together with Tony Jonathan. The commentary on Ezekiel was written in close collaboration with Ron Vellekoop. The Bible is the infallible, everlasting Word of God. The Bible is about the Son of God, Who became Man to die on the cross for sinful people. God raised Him from the dead and He is now in heaven. Anyone who confesses his sins and believes in the Son and His work of atonement on the cross will not perish but receive eternal life. Such a person is a child of God. God tells His children in His Word how to live to His glory and all that He intends to give them, because of their connection to His Son. On the website https://www.oudesporen.nl/artikelen.php?aut=1&l=EN the Bible comments and publications can be downloaded for free as PDF, e-pub and mobi. Born in the Netherlands in 1948, born again in 1966. Sport was my passion. That it was also for some time after my conversion, until, about 1970, I saw the Lord Jesus had a right on my whole life. Since that full surrender the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God are my passion. Reading and studying God's Word gave me a deep desire to preach and share God’s Word both in teaching the believers to the edification of the church of God, with an especial care for young believers and in the preaching of the gospel to unbelievers. This resulted in the writing of simple but not superficial exegesis of all the books of the Bible as well as on different Biblical topics. Of them a lot are translated in other languages. Further, there are a lot of opportunities to teach the Word of God in addresses, Bible readings and on conferences in the Netherlands and abroad. The Lord has given me a wife, Willy, who is a great help to me. Without her I wouldn’t be able to do this work. We married in 1975. The Lord gave us six children and twenty-one grandchildren. The whole Bible is a splendid book and it’s my prayer that you’ll get this impression in an increasing way. I wish you God's blessing! Ger de Koning Middelburg, Netherlands, May 2023 (c) 2023 Author G. de Koning All rights reserved. No part of the publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author. Genesis is written around 1450 BC by Moses, in the Sinai wilderness. In Hebrew, this book is called ‘Bereshith’, which means ‘in the beginning’, after the first words with which this book begins. In Greek it is called Genesis, which means ‘birth’, or ‘origin’, or ‘becoming’. It is rightly the book of the beginning. We find the origin of all things in it. This book tells us, among other things, about the origins of heaven and earth, the institution of marriage and family, the first sin and, as a result, death, the first sacrifice, the judgment, the origins of nations, the root of the people of Israel, the covenant and the circumcision. We will search in vain for the origin of God. God has no beginning. He is the eternal God Who was “in the beginning” ( ; ). All truths that appear in the following books of the Bible are already indicated in this book. A truth can be communicated directly, a truth can also be presented in pictures. Some examples of the first: creation, man and his fall into sin, the power of satan. Some examples of the second: salvation – God clothed man after his fall in sin with the skin of an animal, which refers to the substitute death of the Lord Jesus; the resurrection – in the history of Abraham and Isaac; the reign of a rejected Lord on the throne of the world – in the history of Joseph. Strikingly beautiful is the way in which God personally makes Himself known to man in this book. Thus He comes to Adam in the cool of the evening ( ), announces to Noah His intention about the flood ( ) and visits Abraham and speaks with him ( ). He does not use prophets or priests here, but He Himself comes into the confidentiality with which a man treats his friend. In this book we experience the living, tangible proximity of God to His creature. Division of the book Genesis can be divided into seven parts, according to the seven patriarchs that appear in it (other divisions are also possible): 1. Genesis 1-4 Adam 2. Genesis 5(:21) Enoch 3. Genesis 6-11 Noah 4. Genesis 12-23 Abraham 5. Genesis 24-26 Isaac 6. Genesis 27-36 Jacob 7. Genesis 37-50 Joseph God created everything ( ; ; ). When people make something, they need material. God doesn’t. He does not need anything outside of Himself. He is not part of His creation. He creates from His own omnipotence ( ). Through creation we know that God is there: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” ( ; ). God is the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not the Father does the work of creation, but the Son ( ; ; ). No one was present at the creation of heaven and earth ( ). After all, there was nothing yet. What we read in this chapter can therefore only be understood by faith: “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” ( ). Some commentators assume that a certain time has elapsed between and . In the meantime, the fall of satan would have taken place. For others, there is no time between the two verses, but the story of creation continues. To see the acts of creation as an ongoing story has been a problem for me for some time because of the word “formless”. In my opinion it could not be that God had created the earth “formless and void” ( ). A plausible explanation for me was therefore, that there had to be some time between and with as event the fall of satan, which would have caused this formlessness and void. As a result of the input in a Bible study, I started thinking about it again. God can create something that is ‘formless and void’ and continue to work with it. In this connection a verse from Psalm 139 came to me, which says: “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained [for me], when as yet there was not one of them” ( ). There is mention of an “unformed substance” of the life that God gives in the womb and allows to grow further. This has solved this problem for me. It is sometimes formulated in this way: ‘God first tells us in what He does, to tell us from how He does it.’ That seems to me to be a good reflection of what Genesis 1 is all about. Then we see that God continues to work. His Spirit “moving over the surface of the waters”. This ‘moving’ has the meaning of ‘breeding’ and then we think of new life that will appear later. As said, the Lord Jesus, God the Son, is the Creator. There is “one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” ( ). And He does everything through the Holy Spirit.

‏ Genesis 1:2-3

Introduction

The purpose of the comments is to encourage people to read the Bible. The original web address of the comments is www.kingcomments.com. The comments are intended to help you study the Bible personally. The Bible quotations written in full are taken from the New American Standard Bible-NASB 1995, with permission.

The comments on Job, Psalms and Isaiah are written together with Tony Jonathan. The commentary on Ezekiel was written in close collaboration with Ron Vellekoop.

The Bible is the infallible, everlasting Word of God. The Bible is about the Son of God, Who became Man to die on the cross for sinful people. God raised Him from the dead and He is now in heaven. Anyone who confesses his sins and believes in the Son and His work of atonement on the cross will not perish but receive eternal life. Such a person is a child of God. God tells His children in His Word how to live to His glory and all that He intends to give them, because of their connection to His Son.

Downloads

On the website https://www.oudesporen.nl/artikelen.php?aut=1&l=EN the Bible comments and publications can be downloaded for free as PDF, e-pub and mobi.

About the Author Ger de Koning

Born in the Netherlands in 1948, born again in 1966. Sport was my passion. That it was also for some time after my conversion, until, about 1970, I saw the Lord Jesus had a right on my whole life. Since that full surrender the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God are my passion. Reading and studying God's Word gave me a deep desire to preach and share God’s Word both in teaching the believers to the edification of the church of God, with an especial care for young believers and in the preaching of the gospel to unbelievers.

This resulted in the writing of simple but not superficial exegesis of all the books of the Bible as well as on different Biblical topics. Of them a lot are translated in other languages. Further, there are a lot of opportunities to teach the Word of God in addresses, Bible readings and on conferences in the Netherlands and abroad.

The Lord has given me a wife, Willy, who is a great help to me. Without her I wouldn’t be able to do this work. We married in 1975. The Lord gave us six children and twenty-one grandchildren.

The whole Bible is a splendid book and it’s my prayer that you’ll get this impression in an increasing way.

I wish you God's blessing!

Ger de Koning

Middelburg, Netherlands, May 2023

(c) Copyright

All rights reserved. No part of the publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author.

Introduction

Genesis is written around 1450 BC by Moses, in the Sinai wilderness.

In Hebrew, this book is called ‘Bereshith’, which means ‘in the beginning’, after the first words with which this book begins. In Greek it is called Genesis, which means ‘birth’, or ‘origin’, or ‘becoming’.

It is rightly the book of the beginning. We find the origin of all things in it. This book tells us, among other things, about the origins of heaven and earth, the institution of marriage and family, the first sin and, as a result, death, the first sacrifice, the judgment, the origins of nations, the root of the people of Israel, the covenant and the circumcision.

We will search in vain for the origin of God. God has no beginning. He is the eternal God Who was “in the beginning” (Jn 1:1; Psa 90:2).

All truths that appear in the following books of the Bible are already indicated in this book. A truth can be communicated directly, a truth can also be presented in pictures. Some examples of the first: creation, man and his fall into sin, the power of satan. Some examples of the second: salvation – God clothed man after his fall in sin with the skin of an animal, which refers to the substitute death of the Lord Jesus; the resurrection – in the history of Abraham and Isaac; the reign of a rejected Lord on the throne of the world – in the history of Joseph.

Strikingly beautiful is the way in which God personally makes Himself known to man in this book. Thus He comes to Adam in the cool of the evening (Gen 3:8), announces to Noah His intention about the flood (Gen 6:13) and visits Abraham and speaks with him (Gen 18:1 ; 10-14). He does not use prophets or priests here, but He Himself comes into the confidentiality with which a man treats his friend. In this book we experience the living, tangible proximity of God to His creature.

Division of the book

Genesis can be divided into seven parts, according to the seven patriarchs that appear in it (other divisions are also possible):

1. Genesis 1-4 Adam

2. Genesis 5(:21) Enoch

3. Genesis 6-11 Noah

4. Genesis 12-23 Abraham

5. Genesis 24-26 Isaac

6. Genesis 27-36 Jacob

7. Genesis 37-50 Joseph

The Creator of Heaven and Earth

God created everything (Isa 45:12; Zec 12:1; Eph 3:9). When people make something, they need material. God doesn’t. He does not need anything outside of Himself. He is not part of His creation. He creates from His own omnipotence (Rom 4:17b). Through creation we know that God is there: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” (Rom 1:20; Psa 19:1b).

God is the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not the Father does the work of creation, but the Son (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:1-2). No one was present at the creation of heaven and earth (Job 38:4). After all, there was nothing yet. What we read in this chapter can therefore only be understood by faith: “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” (Heb 11:3).

Some commentators assume that a certain time has elapsed between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2. In the meantime, the fall of satan would have taken place. For others, there is no time between the two verses, but the story of creation continues. To see the acts of creation as an ongoing story has been a problem for me for some time because of the word “formless”. In my opinion it could not be that God had created the earth “formless and void” (Isa 45:18). A plausible explanation for me was therefore, that there had to be some time between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2 with as event the fall of satan, which would have caused this formlessness and void.

As a result of the input in a Bible study, I started thinking about it again. God can create something that is ‘formless and void’ and continue to work with it. In this connection a verse from Psalm 139 came to me, which says: “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained [for me], when as yet there was not one of them” (Psa 139:16). There is mention of an “unformed substance” of the life that God gives in the womb and allows to grow further. This has solved this problem for me.

It is sometimes formulated in this way: ‘God first tells us in Gen 1:1 what He does, to tell us from Gen 1:2 how He does it.’ That seems to me to be a good reflection of what Genesis 1 is all about.

Then we see that God continues to work. His Spirit “moving over the surface of the waters”. This ‘moving’ has the meaning of ‘breeding’ and then we think of new life that will appear later. As said, the Lord Jesus, God the Son, is the Creator. There is “one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” (1Cor 8:6b). And He does everything through the Holy Spirit.

The First Day

In the middle of the darkness a powerful voice is heard. God speaks. His first word is: “Let there be light!” The result is immediate: “And there was light” (cf. Psa 33:6 ; 9). When God speaks, His might and power are revealed.

God looks at His work and concludes that it is good. This announcement shows God’s commitment to His work. He does not look at it to see if there is any unevenness. He is perfect and everything He does is perfect. The project is not only good in itself, but also serves a good goal.

God gives everything a name. In that name He expresses the character, the nature of it. This is how we can recognize things. Man is wise to call the things as God calls them (cf. Isa 5:20). The first day is bordered by evening and morning. Because of this we know that the days of creation are ordinary days of twenty-four hours, as we still know them.

If we read Genesis 1 without prejudice, we can only conclude that God created heaven and earth in six literal days (Exo 20:11). There is spoken about day and night and about “and there was evening and there was morning”. The Hebrew word for day, yom, as a separate word, is in all cases ‘day’ in the ordinary sense of the word (Gen 8:22 ; Gen 29:7, as opposed to ‘night’). Knowing the truth exposes the lie. Every theory of origin that deviates from the account in Genesis 1, we can send to the realm of fables.

Gen 1:3 is applied by Paul to the work of God in the darkened heart of a sinner: “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2Cor 4:6). From this we learn that what happened literally and historically also has a spiritual application. In this way, we discover in the days of creation a process that takes place in someone who comes to repentance.

This process begins in the sinner who is in darkness: “For you were formerly darkness” (Eph 5:8a). The Spirit begins to work, to ‘breed’, at the heart of such a person. Then comes the moment when the sinner discovers that he is in darkness and needs light. Then God lets His light shine in the heart. Through this, all wickedness and dirtiness is revealed. By repentance and conversion new life comes.