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9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. ~ Genesis 1:9-10
Today, we return to our study of Genesis 1 wherein God chronicles day 3 when He created the infrastructure for the ultimate place for His highest creation to live. Here, at the end of day three, God completed the work for His remaining creation, as well, to live. God's ultimate purpose of all of this creating was His glory because all of creation, especially man, is not complete unless we are in relationship with Him.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so."
Again, we have the words, "Then God said." This is yet another example of God defining things for us. When we ignore God’s Word, we cut ourselves off from the primary source of truth. Being defined by the Lord Jesus Christ is counter-cultural in every society, though often in different ways. In some cultures, it’s the Lord's teaching on marriage and sexuality that offends the culture. In others, it’s His emphasis on grace and generosity and mercy. Sometimes it’s His emphasis on the equality of all peoples as made alike in the image of God. Having said that, there are no better definitions of things in this world than the definitions of God. And, when we seek to follow Him, we will be offended and that is good because His ways, His culture is the best for us.
With the separation of the seas and the dry land, there must have been some incredible cataclysmic upheavals as the shifts in the tectonic plates took place. When all of this happened, the water was plunged downward and gathered into what God called "seas." And, God saw that it was good because water is so essential to life. Three-quarters of this planet is covered in water. Sixty-five percent of your bodies are made out of water. Ninety percent of your blood is made out of water. Water is essential to digestion, reproduction, respiration.
As God spoke and defined things, the continents, once submerged beneath the oceans, became visible. Science has long discovered that the earth has indeed been under the oceans, and in certain places this has occurred many times. Further, there is considerable evidence that all of the land was once one great undivided mass. The theory of continental drift holds that once they were one great mass, but were later divided and drifted to their present locations. This original unity is suggested here, and the drift theory is confirmed by other biblical and scientific evidence. I mention this to show again the remarkable agreement here with much that science has discovered.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good."
Out of Genesis 1:1-10, we have the three parts of God's creation: the earth, the seas, and the heavens. After the creation of these three, God then saw it was good because it had reached the point where it was inhabitable. God called the waters "seas," not sea, singular, but seas, plural. This meant that though the ocean was one connected body of water, so that sea level is approximately the same anywhere in the world, yet the oceans themselves were divided into large bodies of water. The knowledge that is revealed here in this passage is not primitive at all; It is very up to date. Genesis 1 is thoroughly relevant today and is as meaningful and accurate in its scientific aspects as it is in its moral judgement. Yet, we are commonly told that Genesis 1 is a primitive document, and reflects mythological legends and ideas.
Each of the days of creation consisted of an evening and a morning; an evening which is incomplete, imperfect, unfinished, merging into that which is perfect and complete according to the phase that God desired for the earth at that time. During this period there was the rising of the continents, the weathering of the rocks and the soil forming gradually to make preparation for the plant life that was to follow. But remember too that all this on the physical level is but a manifestation of a parallel spiritual reality. If we do not study Genesis with that well in mind we will miss the great purpose of this book.
Man's greatest pursuit is God who has defined all things for us. His definitions of life are right. In fact, all things are sacred, it is just that man has devalued what God made as sacred. Man's worst pursuit is that which is different than the culture that God has given us. One might think that Satan is our worst pursuit, and that is true. But who pursues Satan? In fact, since Satan knows he can't get most to follow him directly, his strategy is to get us to follow him indirectly. He does this by getting us to worship and follow ourselves. Every day we have a variety of choices and each choice either goes the pathway of God or the pathway of the self. We are wise to give safe haven in our souls to the culture of God which is made up of His definition of things.
For the believer in Christ, success means growing closer to God. A key aspect in this pursuit is our fight against temptation. Overcoming the temptation to sin or to go our own way is accomplished as we choose daily to be defined by God. We will know that we are being defined by God when we obey His word and follow the leading of His Spirit. Only God knows perfectly what is best for us; when we try to do things our own way, we invariably miss the mark. Obeying God is the only way to know we are doing the right thing in the end.
Adam and Eve, our first parents, rejected God’s authority and fell into sin. After the Fall, the original state of perfect communion between God and man was broken, meaning that we can no longer know what God wants for us without being told. Even if we don’t immediately understand all of God’s commands, we must trust in His wisdom and obey. Obedience is connected to trust and respect. It actually comes from a Greek word meaning "to hear." When we obey God, it is a sign that we really trust Him and we are really listening to Him. He truly knows what is best for us. If we don’t obey God, we are essentially saying, "I know better than You do, God" which is precisely what happened in the Garden of Eden.
