Genesis 1

From time immemorial man has been held spellbound by the question of the beginning. The beginning of man and the world.

Now here in the word of God, we have the answer — what happened at the very beginning.

In the beginning God. So that answers the question men from all ages have asked. "What happened at the very beginning, who was there at the very beginning?"

In the beginning was God. I have heard the arguments being made that in the beginning was nothing and out of that nothing came something.

But now we are informed as to what was in the beginning. God was in the beginning.

Interestingly, this verse was not addressing so much what was there in the beginning as much as what was happening in the beginning.

It is a sentence stating what was happening in the beginning and that is, in the beginning the heavens and the earth were created.

We are not only told that in the beginning heaven and earth were created but who did the creation, i.e. God. This therefore lets us in on the fact that there was a being doing the creation and by implication existed before the creation of the heaven and the earth.

And the earth became without form... Dake's commentary bible, which is what I use personally, explained that the word "was" actually means to become.

I thus checked the strong 💪 definition of the word 'was' in Hebrew and here is what I got..."to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out (Qal)-----to happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about, come to pass, to come about, come to pass, to come into being, become, to arise, appear, come to be, to become, to become like, to be instituted, be established, to be, to exist, be in existence, to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time) to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality) to accompany, be with..."

That’s quite a tall order, but the point is this. "The earth came to be without form." We see God create heaven and earth 🌎 and then the earth, part of his creation, becomes without form and void. What happened? What caused such waste and destruction..???

Some theorize that that is the flood of Lucifer and the pre-adamite world 🗺. I have not personally done much research into that, so I will leave that hanging till I'm personally convinced about this, but it's worth mentioning.

God called 🌩 light to be and it was so. Where did the light come from and how was it formed? We are not told in scripture but one thing we notice is that the light came after God spoke. To emphasise this, we are told "God said... and there was light", emphasizing that the observance of the light was after the speaking forth of it.

This is so important because all through the rest of the Bible we see this pattern set in stone: God executes his will through speaking forth of words.

Amos 3:7-8 KJV Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. [8] The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

And this theme of God requiring his servants to prophesy, and speak forth recurs 🔁 severally in all of scripture.

After the spirit hovers on the waters, God speaks forth light and then God goes to work to separate light from darkness. I'll see if this forms a pattern in the rest of the creation narrative or was only applied here. That is the pattern of speaking forth before actually going ahead to make what was spoken from word matter (non-existent matter or matter made from words).

Scientifically we know it's the Sun's ☀ shadow which is cast upon the earth 🌎.

But why is that so to start with? Why does the earth cast a shadow on its other half 🌗?

That is how God chose to divide light and darkness.

The laws of physics were created to be so.

For instance, we have gravity on the earth 🌎 but not in space.

This shows gravity is not the default. It's only part of, or natural to, earth 🌎 but not natural to heaven.

There is no gravity in space. So here on earth we should know that the things we have were not automatically meant to be.

No, it was deliberately created to be so.

God again begins to name everything he created.

We see a repetition of the same format. That is God calls forth what he wants, then he goes ahead to work on it and makes it. He then gives the finished product a name.

Let's call this the law of creative process.

We see a repetition of the same format.

God calls forth what he wants, then he goes ahead to work on it and makes it...

Then gives the finished product a name.

Let's call this the law of creative process.

Let's see if the law of creative process is followed here...

1. God calls forth or commands what he wants to see

2. The things appear and God goes ahead to work out and create what he spoke forth

3. He names the final product

The evening and morning. Is it not interesting that evening is mentioned before morning and called day? This order is followed in the Jewish Sabbath where a day is from sunset in the evening to sunset the following evening.

rulership is not dominance over others, it is you being your best self every day in constant growth and helping others be the same way.

I got this statement above as I read this verse and started feeling sleepy then I heard it in my sleepiness
remember there was already day and night before the sun and moon the two great lights were created, there was in fact evening and morning and the existence of lights before the two great lights were created.

Be Fruitful: be productive, create and produce something of worth out of the resources available to you. The principle/blessing is akin to a seed harnessing the resources of the soil and sunlight etc to grow to a giant tree and then to produce fruit. Something creative and beneficial as a result of harnessing resources available and one's own internal giftings and abilities.

So a mango seed produces a unique fruit different from an orange based on its natural inherent abilities.

Multiply: it's akin to fruitfulness but in this case you duplicate yourself, the fruit has within it the seed: the multiplier. We as men are expected to multiply ourselves.

Replenish: means to fill a vacant space - in other words GOD is telling man, don’t just multiply, but do so till you fill the entire container: the earth. Multiply without limit, restraint, complacency. Fill the entire container. The limit is till the earth is full.

And Subdue it: so you are to fill the entire earth but not only that. Be the dominant force. This therefore suggests opposing forces to one's dominance. You see you can multiply and replenish and yet still be subdued. The fact that you’ve filled the earth and have multiplied greatly doesn’t mean you are the dominant force.

For instance in the slave trade and colonisation era, the masters who subdued these colonies were not necessarily the majority yet they subdued all else.

So man is to subdue.

The rest of the verses go on to some specifics of man's dominion. However it is interesting that man was not to have dominion over other men; over his offspring. At least that was not stated before the fall.

In all of history we see only one man 👨 who was able to successfully accomplish this mandate... i.e. the man Jesus Christ... Absolute mastery over sea land and air.. He walked on water, stopped the tempestuous wind, healed the sick, repaired eyes.

Cast out demons and other trespassers and intruders in the earth realm.

Why did man have to have rulership or dominion over these creatures?

Especially that in the beginning they were harmless.

Also that, as we can see 🌊, nature when left alone does well and thrives by itself.

What exactly did God have in mind when he asked man to rule over all?

One such intent of God was for man to have oversight responsibility and to ensure that things function as God intended.

And more specifically since there were the enemies of God in the earth 🌎, the dominion of man was very much needed in that light.

See, the devil 👿 was out there to destroy man and God's creation.

Man's responsibility was to prevent that and ensure the systems functioned as God had intended.

This concept of an enemy being out there was not hidden from man 👨.

As seen in the very statement of man replenishing the earth 🌎, having dominion and keeping the garden.

From the beginning we were all vegetarians.