Having completed analysis of the first three days of creation, it is fitting to pause and consider what has been learned. The high degree of detail can seem overwhelming and shroud important teachings.
The New Creation Eliminates the Boundaries of the Old Creation
With the completion of the third day’s creation events, we have reached the mid-point of God’s creative program. In the first three days, God consistently created “spaces” by separating and bounding “chaos” that represented the unstructured starting point of creation. By separating and bounding the chaos, God’s first steps were to create a structure, bringing order to the universe.
The first day brought the creation of light from the darkness. Importantly, the establishment of a rhythmic cycle of light and darkness (described as day and night) with transition points of evening and morning established a time-based structure. Both light and time were created on the first day by bounding the pre-creative darkness and separating darkness from light.
The second day’s activities were marked with the creation of a “firmament” or “vault” that separated heaven from the earth, creating the first two spaces. The Ancients envisioned this firmament or vault as a solid surface, suggesting its impenetrability. It anticipates tension to come in the narrative as the earth is the place of man’s sphere separated from God by this impenetrable bound.
The third day completes the tasks of bounding and separating with the creation of land that separated and bounded the waters of the deep. In three days, three spaces have been created: heaven as the domain of God, earth or land as the domain of man, and the deep, the domain of the dead. Like the impenetrability of the firmament, there is implication that those who pass from life on earth to death in the deep cannot return. The bound between the two is uncross-able for man.
It again hints at coming tension in future narratives. How will man interact with God given their infinite separation? What will happen to man upon death? Will a “way” be provided for him to return to life? The structuring of the narrative seems intended to set the foundation to address these important ethical questions we face in our current world.
Our studies show that later authors attempted to answer these questions. The answers are surprising, delayed until the Eschaton – the end of the ages. That the answers are not realized until the end of the ages gives great value to the study of eschatology as these ethical questions cannot be answered apart from eschatology.
But most striking are the prophesied answers. God, whose creation is fundamentally grounded in the creation of three spaces that are separate and bounded from one another, will bring about a totally new creation in which the bounds between these spaces are removed, leaving only one space for eternity. It is a totally unexpected outcome. All the limitations of our current cosmos will be eliminated and God together with man, will be able to freely enjoy all God’s creation.
Even time will cease, replaced by the never ending light of God’s glory. All order will be maintained by His chosen Messiah. Darkness and the Deep will be banished forever and the firmament between heaven and earth eliminated. At the end of the ages, God will tabernacle with His people and creation without limitation.
Despite the promised transformative changes to creation, there is more to come as we have only progressed to creation’s midpoint. As future posts will show, God has a purpose in creating these spaces. He wishes to fill these spaces with life. And this is what will be accomplished in the final three days of creation which are also carefully structured to yield a one-to-one correspondence between separating and filling days, celebrated with an eternal Sabbath of rest. Central to the drama, is what happens to all the created species who have been given a place in these newly created spaces as the transformation of creation proceeds. The prophets also provide an answer that is eschatological.
Important are the ethical lessons anticipated in these first three days. The boundaries established during these three days were intended to be uncrossed by man. They anticipate further boundaries that will be introduced between God and His creation – most notably mankind and the angels. The boundaries that will be introduced are ethical, based in obedience and allegiance to God’s commands. If either man or angel breaks or crosses these ethical boundaries, chaos ensues.
To the Ancients, breaking God’s commands brought dissolution of creation (the cosmos) in two fundamental ways. First, it unformed his world, bringing brought chaos to the boundary-breaker, his family and community. The chaos could be both physical and spiritual. A suspension of nature’s predictability often ensued with early frosts or pestilence destroying harvests, disease the body could not overcome, or premature death.
It could also lead to suspension of God’s protection from foreign invaders who would cross national boundaries plundering harvests, taking prisoners and killing members of God’s people. Second, it brought an unfilling of creation, bringing destruction of the boundary-breaker and potentially his family and community. It could even extend to destruction of other life-forms such as livestock or harvests.
These unfavorable outcomes to the boundary-breaker and his community emphasized the importance of living lawfully – i.e. keeping God’s commands. Living to maintain God-ordained boundaries assured order in nature through the blessing of abundant harvests, peace and safety in the community, and unity among God’s people. The sin of disobedience was boundary breaking that inherently brought de-creative chaos: chaos to the boundary-breaker, his family, community, land and de-creative destruction to all God’s creation.
This belief of the Ancients is most visible in the blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience in the Covenant of Sinai (see Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). But as we will see, the genesis of blessings/cursings for obedience/disobedience is seen in the Fall from Eden. The theme continues through the New Testament in which the ultimate blessing is eternal life with God, and final cursing is eternity in a hellish place described as the lake of fire. Though only half-way through creation, the outline of critical ethical lessons is already taking shape.
Relevance to Christians Today
The belief that sin brings de-creation “undoing” God’s creation, may seem foreign to many Christians today. Yet the Ancients believed God was ever-present in the affairs of creation enforcing order. Without God’s constant and active participation in maintaining the order of the universe, chaos would result. Critically, in granting men and angels free will, chaos and disorder are inevitable given poor choices and disobedience to God’s governing ethical principles.
Our choices make a critical difference. Through obedient acts, we can facilitate God’s blessing upon ourselves, our families and our communities – a blessing that is ultimately redemptive. Through disobedient acts, we bring chaos to ourselves, families and communities that is ultimately unredemptive, putting the salvation of loved ones at risk.
The de-creative consequences of our disobedience persist until the eschaton. We will be forgiven if we repent, but the consequences linger to the end. In an era where forgiveness is ever-stressed, Christians should remember sin’s far-reaching destructive consequences, impacting all of God’s creation.
The Ancients believed creation was ordered by ethical acts of God and it could be de-created by unethical acts by men and angels. This view is prevalent in Scripture but particularly emphasized in the writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah whose prophecies of judgment against Israel were described as if they brought complete destruction of the cosmos, returning the earth to its primeval state (see Table 1).
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Open in new tab Both attest sin brings chaos, a de-creation that requires a re-creative act of God to redeem His people and creation. Both reveal the eschatological fulfillment of de-creation, reversing God’s acts of creation in Genesis 1. The parallels between the elements of creation and de-creation are striking with one significant difference: At the completion of creation, God rests. At the completion of de-creation is God’s wrath. These two outcomes seem to anticipate the ultimate outcome of the choices men make.
Both Jeremiah’s and Isaiah’s predictions of Judah’s destruction seem to foreshadow a larger judgment and destruction at the end of our age. Their testimony seems affirmed in Revelation, a work infused with destructive judgments upon all creation for the sins of men and angels. Often unappreciated, is that much of the sin judged in Revelation results from the failure of God’s people. These failures can be contrasted against the righteous acts of Christ and His church that bring a new creation, one in which mankind is restored to God’s presence.