this is the new American Bible the Old Testament read by Eric Martin the book of Genesis the primeval history chapter 1 first story of creation there are two creation stories so even before one word was said of the first burst of the first chapter of Genesis were prepared for paradox this is this is going to be with us through the whole Bible and I think it's important to keep in mind that the writers and the compilers of the Bible were not stupid and they knew what a contradiction was and they were no more willing to accept genuine contradiction than you or I in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth the earth was a formless wasteland and darkness covered the abyss while a mighty wind swept over the waters the most important thing to take from this first line is that God created the universe he created it out of nothing and there's a lot of poetic language here about what that might have looked like giving form to the formless giving shape to the shapeless dividing things separating things we're gonna see a lot of imagery like this but the basic idea is that God created everything out of nothing that's the essential takeaway here philosophically then God said let there be light and there was light God doesn't need light but he created light for his creation it was fascinating to think about that there was no physical light before the creation of the universe but God is light God's the light of reason and we still in our intellects we have the light of God we don't have a natural light in our minds we have a supernatural light in our minds we don't have a created light in our intellects we have an uncreated light in our intellects and that light is God God saw how good the light was God then separated the light from the darkness a lot of atheists are fond of ridiculing religion and saying how divisive it is well yet it is divisive God divided the light from the darkness and we have to choose I hope we choose wisely choose God choose life God called the light day and the darkness he called night thus evening came and morning followed the first day so here we have the idea timekeeping of the daily rhythm of life there is day there is night of course there's the symbolic value of day and night and we feel a certain trepidation in the night time and we feel a certain sense of hope of the coming dawn and I mean that light first breaks and we all experience this on different levels God knows God has a plan and God designed us he gave us a human nature that corresponds with the reality of the physical universe that it created and the reality of the supernatural spiritual world as well we tend to take it for granted that there's day and night but before God created the universe there were no days there were no weeks there were no months there were no years there were no seasons but God created this orderly universe and he ordained that there would be seconds and minutes and hours and days when the Sun reaches high noon it's at its zenith there is no argument against that it's at its high point it's rising it peaks and it begins to fall and goes down toward the other horizon so God is well aware of all the relations that are possible in his well ordered universe and he's aware that we have a certain freedom to call high noon by whatever term we want but he knows the significance that's built into that and the scientist that's pursuing the truth boughs to that reality the honest scientist submits to the reality of high noon that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west and during the course of that movement that relative movement in our sky it does reach a high point and we give that a special name I think it's important to distinguish the hard realities of relation that exists in this universe this well ordered universe and the freedom that we have culturally and the wiggle room that we have in terms of categorization I don't think there's anything particularly sacred about an hour having 60 minutes I could be wrong but what we can't deny are the rhythms of the motions of the heavenly bodies and how our planet participates in those heavenly motions and we can't deny the absolute eternal fixed relations that are described by those heavenly emotions and by which those heavenly motions can be described by the scientist then God said let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate one body of water from the other and so it happened God made the dome and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it God called the dome the sky evening came and morning followed the second day then God said let the water under the sky be gathered into a single Basin so that the dry land may appear it's almost as though the division in the vertical of the waters above in the waters below and then the horizontal division from the waters and the dry land it's almost like a great sign of the Cross from above to below and then from side to side it seems very likely to me that that would be one of the many layers of meaning in that division of the waters but God only knows and so it happened the water under the sky was gathered into its basin and the dry land appeared God called the dry land the earth and the basin of the water he called the sea God saw how good it was then God said let the earth bring forth vegetation every kind of plant that bear seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it palms are made by fools like me but only God can make a tree it really is a fascinating picture that's being painted in Genesis that damp soil will feed the first plants and those plants will feed the first animals and so it happened the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bear seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it as soon as we have life we have this notion of fruitfulness we have this notion of you've received freely your life and you give freely your life the first plants take their nutrients from the earth and they produce seeds and fruit and give it back to the earth and later we'll see how these fruits and seeds will feed the higher for of life but even now looking at the plant life how selflessly and how freely they give back everything they have they've received and they don't abort they don't sterilize themselves they bear fruit they bear seed and they give it back to the earth this is the order of nature this is the way that God ordained creation he gave life freely and we have to give that life the way that plants do if they hold on to their seed if they hold on to their fruit it's nothing but rot and purification it will kill the plant and it won't be good for anyone this part of the Genesis story is germinal it really is seminal literally and metaphorically God saw how good it was evening came and morning followed the third day then God said let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate day from night let them mark the fixed times the days and the years and service luminaries in the Dome of the sky to shed light upon the earth and so it happened God made the two great lights the greater one to govern the day and the lesser one to govern the night and he made the Stars God set them in the Dome of the sky to shed light upon the earth to govern the day and the night and to separate the light from the darkness we see that these lights have a governing role they govern us the Sun and the moon have authority over us we need to submit to them in the day we can be joyful if we're free from sin and if we're in God's grace we thank God we look to the son and we thank God and if we have offended our Lord we go to Mary that's the night that's the moon that's softer reflected light so this imagery can be applied on many many different levels psychologically spiritually at the very extreme case we could say that no one looks directly at the Sun no one with the one exception of Mary Mary of course being the one that reflects the light of her son but none of us can look correctly at the Sun none of us can go directly to Jesus we all are sinners and we're all imperfect and the justice the perfect justice of Jesus would overwhelm us were it not for the mercy and the gentleness of the moon who is Mary so we need to know who we are we need to know what state were in we need to acknowledge reality this is called humility humility which takes its root from the name for the earth so we see in the Genesis creation story the first creation story we see the water and the earth and the life that Springs from that to plant life and eventually the animal life and then finally the human life but we're humbled we go back to the earth we come from the earth and we go back to the earth this is humility we need to know who we are what we are and who our Creator is and the order that the creator made for us for our good for ultimate happiness so we need to know that we come from the earth and they were destined to go back to the earth and we need to know that we come from God and we ultimately destined to go back to God God saw how good it was evening came and morning followed the fourth day then God said let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures and on the earth let birds fly beneath the Dome of the sky and so it happened God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems and all kinds of winged birds God saw how good it was and God blessed them saying be fertile multiply and fill the water of the Seas and let the birds multiply on the earth evening came and morning followed the fifth day there's an emphasis here on the diversity the complexity of life the variety of life the sheer volume of life these creatures that are monstrous because they demonstrate God's power and God's plan for us and the order of the spiritual and physical universe in the 21st century we're discovering constantly discovering new hideous monstrous creatures beautiful creatures that of previously inaccessible depths in the sea in the ocean there's so many documentaries about nature and animals it's an endlessly fascinating topic because there's always a demonstration of God's power and his justice and his mercy and the order this well ordered universe and we need to look at where we fit into that creation to find the true meaning of our life then God said let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures cattle creeping things and wild animals of all kinds and so it happened God made all kinds of wild animals all kinds of cattle and all kinds of creeping things of the earth God saw how good it was then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea the birds of the air and the cattle and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground there's a connection being made between the land animals the cattle and our dominion over the earth that there is a hierarchy in the animal kingdom and that we can clothe ourselves with the skins of animals we can drink the milk and we can eat the flesh of certain animals these were made for us and even the mention of the creepy things the creepy crawlies we can see them as an enemy to our crops we can see them as a food source just like John the Baptist eating locusts we can see them as an omen with Pharaoh the plagues so we see a blessing and a curse we see a blessing with the cattle we see an idea of self-discipline John the Baptist chastising his body eating nothing but wild honey and locusts and we see the punishment also here in the idea of the plague that's coming for Pharaoh and the plague that's coming for all of us that don't submit to God it's one nature it's one set of creatures we can be plagued by the locust or we can eat the locust we need to choose we need to it's that it's again it's that division we're being prepared here that all of nature is ordered to our salvation and there are choices we will make and that these choices will have consequences and this we need to bear this this story in mind when looking at the entire Bible because it has a symbolic value ultimately for our salvation God created man in His image in the divine image he created him male and female he created them he made humans in His image and likeness and part of that entails this supernatural light the light of reason God blessed them saying be fertile and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea the birds of the air and all the living things that move on the earth God also said seeing I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed bearing fruit on it to be your food and to all the animals of the land all the birds of the air and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground I give all the green plants for food and so it happened God looked at everything he had made and he found it very good evening came and morning followed the sixth day so we see in the six days of creation that everything is well ordered that man has been given Dominion we see day by day that God approves of his creation of course he does he is perfect day one was good day two was good day three was good day 4 was good day five was good and day six he assessed all six days as very good what God saw is what he sees right now right now as you're listening to this God is seeing his creation and he is saying it is very good from God's perspective it is all good it's all good because of the ontological goodness of his creation it's all good because of the good gifts he gives us His grace it's all good in spite of our failings our weakness and our sin it's all good in spite of all of the evils that flow as a natural consequence of original sin and actual sin we are sinners we need to acknowledge that we're sinners and we need to understand that from perspective he's seen our since before we were even conceived in our mothers woman's he knew that we would fail that we would fall short he knew that he saw the course of your life from the beginning to the end and he declared it very good he has seen it and he has declared it very good because of his good grace because of his good gifts and because of your ontological goodness and in spite of the evil that you choose and the evil that you did choose and the evil that you will choose he sees all of it and he declares it all very good why because he's all-powerful there's no sin that can upset his tranquillity there's no evil that can Mar his beauty nothing can tamper with his well-ordered universe there are real consequences to sin suffering Israel pain is real he doesn't want evil but he's permitting evil he's allowing evil because ultimately he can bring good out of it and so he declares it good my life is good your life is good in spite of the evil that's there because that's not an impediment for him those poor souls who choose hell and who end up in health he saw that before creation he saw that from all eternity and he smiled on that he smiles on everything when he frowns on sin that frowning god is hell because our wills are weakened because our intellects are dimmed since the fall we're subject to error were subject to sin there is a very real danger of choosing something other than God choosing something other than life end up ending up in hell but God smiled on that he saw that he saw that it's good his reality is good his reality is good