Rev. Rob Jones
June 3, 2026

Genesis 1:1-2:4
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. 6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 8 God called the dome Sky. 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 And God saw that it was good. 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night.” 18 And God saw that it was good. 20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind.” And it was so. 25 And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”
27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
Gen. 2:1   Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. 4   These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

This creation story in Genesis is beautiful. It is rooted in Faith and theological truth rather than biological or scientific fact. When God created the world in this story, God did so by SPEAKING. The author of Genesis did not debate or defend God's role, or even His presence. Initially, there was God, and only God… and God created. 

Before God spoke, things sounded ominous. Darkness and chaos reigned, and the earth was formless. Try as you might, you cannot fathom the universe in this state; it is the stuff of nightmares and horror stories. 

God stands outside this chaos, an agent of order that brings our universe into existence. The earth (lowercase e) was formless. That is earth as in the dirt. Dirt was formless. Earth in Hebrew is Adamah, and Adam comes from Adamah. Adam is a transliteration of the Hebrew word. It sounds the same in both languages. Adam is not a name; it is a classification: human. 

Adamah is to Adam as Earth is to Earthling. 

So, God, which is not of the Adamah and not a part of the chaos, not consumed by the darkness, does something we often overlook. God’s spirit moved over the waters. The Hebrew word is Ruach. It means spirit, wind, breath, or essence. In other words, as it is now, even then, God was present!

God, then, began to bring order to the chaos – GOD SPOKE. “Let there be light!” and there was light. God decided that the light was good. The Hebrew word is Tov. Then the ordering started; the light was separated from darkness and named. The light was called Yom, or day, and the darkness Laylah, or night. 

(This is important to understand for Hebrew culture. 1/To speak was to make something authentic and cause something to happen. 2/To name something was to know it and even to control it. – once a word is spoken, it cannot be unspoken. – A prime example is in Genesis, in the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing. Esau was the oldest and was supposed to inherit Isaac's blessing from God. And once Isaac blessed Jacob, it was too late to change anything.

Genesis 27:33-35
33 Then Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!” 34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!” 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”

We used to have a saying in America. “A man’s word is his bond.” Remember that? 

Back to Creation. God is doing a lot according to the story and Hebrew tradition. And that was just day number one. 

Day 2: Created the Dome or Sky (Shamyim or Shameh)

Day 3: Separates the Oceans – creating Sea and Land (Yam and ‘Eretz)

[The first three days of creation are phenomenal – God is like an artist setting up their studio, getting the canvas in the right place in the room so the light is perfect. Then, putting the supplies in a handy space so the muse can work, and the art can come to life through the brush of the artist.]

(In a way, this is what God was doing, and in the next three days, God forms the universe we know and expels the chaos that consumed everything before.)

Day 4: God created the Sun, Moon, and the Stars

Day 5: God created Birds and Sea Creatures.

Day 6: God created Cattle, Little creepy crawlies, and once the canvas was set, God created Humankind. The Adam. (a classification, not a name)

This is beautiful imagery, poetic in language and style. It captures the imagination and the Hebrew culture. As God was creating, he kept noticing the work and said it was good – The Hebrew word is Tov. Finally, when God admired the job on day six, the art was complete, and it was Very Good – Tov Meꜥod.

Part 2

Now the gospel of John builds on this Hebrew tradition of speaking by using the Greek word Logos. John knew the creation and understood the concept of speaking something into existence. He wraps Jesus into this tradition as poetically as the author in Genesis. John is retelling the Genesis story from a new theological point of view. Like the Genesis author, there is no scientific argument here, only theological. 

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

If Jesus is the Logos (word) of God incarnate, Jesus must be eternal as God is eternal. That is John’s argument in a nutshell.

God created through the Word. God’s word is as much God as your words and thoughts are you. That Word of God is Jesus, and Jesus was and is with God. Not the Chaos before creation. Everything created comes from the Word. Therefore, the Word is Life, and Life is the Light of the World. And to tie it back to Genesis, that light shines in the darkness. And I love the literal translation of the last sentence. “The darkness could not comprehend the light.” 

From this theological reasoning, we can extrapolate that to be in the light is to be in the presence of God, and to be in the presence of God is to be literally enlightened. Therefore, chaos is dumbfounded in the light of Christ. That brings us to the third reading for this study. 

Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You may know this as the Great Commission. But, considering the eternal nature of Christ, we have established, I want to go a little deeper. I want to make three quick points.

1—This last command from Jesus is given to the disciples, who simultaneously worshipped him and doubted. There is no real distinction. All worshipped him, and some also doubted. It happened at the same time. This is an act of faith – Just as the writer of Genesis 1 believed God spoke creation into existence without being an eyewitness. 

2– Jesus tells the disciples that he has All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. As one part of the Trinity, Jesus is as much God as the Spirit or the Father. And therefore, Jesus has the power to SPEAK; with one word, Jesus could change the world. Every head would bow, every knee would kneel, and every heart would change. If Jesus would SPEAK “Belief.”

However, that is not what God intended for creation. That is not why God created us. Hebrews tells us that angels were created as servants to God. (Hebrews 1:14) But that is not why God created Adam. Humankind was created to be in communion with God. Christ seeks to meet us in our surroundings, in our sin, in our doubt. Not to shame us but to redeem us. He could speak belief into our hearts, but then the communion would not be genuine. The tragedy of the creation story is not that in the garden we sinned; it is that the communion, the evening walk with God, was lost. And God has been seeking us, allowing us to return to the communion ever since. 

3– Jesus gave the disciples the command to Go and Make Disciples. So, with our doubts and fears, we are to Go and Make Disciples with our words, testimony, and witness. 

Conclusion.

Listen for God to speak because his word is powerful…

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.