European Bible Study Meeting, 2002God Did not Create the Earth in Vain, He Formed It to be InhabitedApril 1st, 2002 Evening Lecture Part 1For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:18 NKJVGod Said, “Bring Forth,” and It Was SoLet’s turn to Genesis chapter 1 and read from verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. verses 1-5Various thoughts may come to mind when you read this passage. You may wonder how evil entered into this world that God created, or why God used this particular method of creation. Yet the Bible says that man “cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” Ecclesiastes 3:11, and, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” Romans 9:20. At all events, it is clear from these passages that there is evil in this world.Let’s think about this. Young children lie to their parents without anyone teaching them to do it. Even though no one teaches them to hate, they still feel hatred towards others. In the Bible God only gives us a very short verses to tell us about what happened when such evil began. Are we going to deny God or question His righteousness just because we cannot fully understand those verses? Isn’t it better to think about the kind of person you are as you live your life on this earth and what form this evil takes in this world?Even if you try to deny it, evil clearly exists on this earth. No matter how hard you may try to deny it sin wells up in your heart like a fountain. Where does that come from? We can see from the Bible that this sin clearly does not come from God; it started with another being. This is the being referred to as “the prince of the power of the air” in the verse that says, “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” Ephesians 2:2. He is “the prince of the power of the air,” in other words, the angel of long ago known as Day Star.Of this devil the Bible says, “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’” Isaiah 14:13-14. He had a proud heart, and he was cut down to the ground. It was because of this that there was a season in which the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. The devil, who was the cause of all this, existed at that time and still exists today.What was the first thing that God did when He was establishing an environment on the earth in which man would be able to live? He said, “Let there be light” Genesis 1:3. This was the “true light” referred to in John’s Gospel chapter 1 where it says, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” verse 9, and “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” verse 4. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and God saw that the light was good. God caused a seed containing some kind of power to fall to this earth. As this began to move from the second day of the creation, we are presented with an image overflowing with the power of life as the waters below were separated from the waters above and an expanse appeared between them see Genesis 1:6-8.Now let’s take a look at the third day of the creation.And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. Genesis 1:9The dry land appeared.God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:10We cannot know exactly what happened to the earth at that time, but one thing is certain: on the second day of the creation, the waters surrounding the earth separated forming waters above the expanse and below the expanse and forming an empty space between them. Then on the third day the waters below the expanse gathered together into one place, and the dry land appeared on which man might walk.And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. Genesis 1:11We need to be careful when it comes to the word “earth.” Then we have three different categories: “vegetation,” “plants yielding seed,” and “fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.” When it talks about the vegetation, there is no mention of the “seed,” but when it comes to the plants and the fruit trees the “seed” is mentioned. As I was reading this passage I thought it very strange and wondered why God divided things in this way. In relation to this, let’s take a look at the passage that follows on from this.The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. Genesis 1:12-13General knowledge teaches us that the power of life is wielded when the sun shines on the soil and a shoot sprouts up from a seed and grows. If the Bible did not say, “the third day,” and, “the fourth day,” we might think these passages should be recorded in the reverse order of this passage of the third day of creation, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens”, but the Bible says clearly, “And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”Now let’s take a look at the fourth day of the creation.And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. Genesis 1:14-15God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.” When it says, “in the expanse of the heavens,” the earth is taken as the basis. Something began to happen as seen from the ground. I do not know how scientists interpret these words, but I believe them precisely as they stand.And God said, “and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” The Bible talks about “all the toil of my labors under the sun” Ecclesiastes 2:20. Seeds were able to sprout on the third day, which is before God said, “to give light upon the earth.” Where did the power come from that enabled this?“As you do not know . . . how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child” Ecclesiastes 11:5 NKJV. We really do not know how this comes about. The light of the sun, which has been given to us as a shadow of the life of God, may have the power to the seeds that God planted in the earth, causing them to sprout and grow, but the seed itself, the life itself, definitely does not come from the sun.According to the order in the Bible, God first said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed.” This was before the light of the sun shone onto the earth. We can see that the sunlight was given after this in order to maintain these things. This is the secret of God’s life that flows throughout the entire Bible.And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Genesis 1:16When you read this verse, you may think that it was at this time that God set the ball of fire that is our sun in the vicinity of the earth. Yet it says clearly, “God made the two great lights.” It says “lights” but the moon is not a ball of fire. Only the sun is a ball of fire. The moon simply reflects the light of the sun. From this verse, we can see that some kind of light in the sky that ruled over the day and some kind of light that ruled over the night could be seen from the earth.And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. Genesis 1:17-19Here again it says that God separated the light from the darkness. Regarding the first day of the creation, the Bible says, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.” It does not say that God saw that it was good. But of the fourth day, it says, “and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.” It seems that God was not displeased with the darkness that we are able to see and feel. Yet when it comes to the darkness we cannot see, the darkness in our hearts, the power of darkness that causes us to sin, there is no mention of this being pleasing to God. You will find it very helpful if you bear this kind of thing in mind as you are reading Genesis.On the third day of the creation, the waters were gathered together into one place, and the dry land appeared on which man could live and walk. Also, before the sun, the moon,
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