TEXT: Genesis 1:31

SUBJECT: Henry on Genesis 1 #12

Tonight, with the Lord’s help, we’ll complete the study we began about three months ago. It’s called Matthew Henry on Genesis 1. The first chapter in the Bible can be divided into three parts:

• God the Creator, vv.1-28

• God the Provider, vv.29-30

• God the Judge, v.31

In v.1, we have the Lord making all things out of nothing. In vv.2-28, He sets all things in order—separating the light from the darkness, the waters from the dry land, the plants from the animals, and so on.

In vv.29-30, we have the Lord sustaining life by providing for every living creature. We cannot live without food, yet food is not something we have a right to; it’s a gift. It’s the Lord’s gift to man and beast.

Finally, in v.31, we have the Lord looking over the creation and telling us what He thinks of it. Henry calls this…

I’m not sure what I can add to this, but let’s recall two things:

First of all, the universe is modeled on the Imagination of God alone. He pictured it in His own mind and then made a copy of what He saw. In other words, He didn’t borrow from other artists; He didn’t develop the work others did before Him. No, He thought it up all by Himself and then He did without the help of anyone. This shows the great wisdom of God.

If you read the lives of the inventors or scientists, you know that every last one of them built on the ideas of other men. Who invented the light bulb? Or the automobile? Or the radio? Books say Thomas Edison or Karl Benz or Marconi. But the fact is, most of the work was done by others. The famous men just took the works a bit farther than the men whose names will never be known. Edison, Benz, and Marconi were brilliant men—to be sure—but only a smidgen smarter (or more fortunate) than many others.

This is not true of the Lord. He made everything out of nothing and with no pattern to go by but His own. He is "the only wise God"; in Him are "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge".

If this is true, then you have to ask yourself: Why do you listen to others more than God? Why would you take a man’s advice over God’s Word?

The Corinthians very much admired "wisdom", by which they meant a fine way of saying things. If it sounded good, they believed it. Paul might have presented the Gospel this way, but he would not. Because—he said—

If the Lord ever said a stupid thing, it would be infinitely wiser than the most brilliant thing a man could ever say. Whatever wisdom we have is but a glimmer of what God has. At our best, we’re like flickering lamps, but God is the sun!

If a man lets on that he’s smarter than God, tell him to make an original universe and then maybe—just maybe—you’ll listen to what he has to say. Until then,

"Let God be true and every man a liar".

The second thing to notice here is the vision of God. On the first Friday afternoon, the Lord surveyed all He made. With one glance, He took in heaven and earth. He looked at the trees and into them; He saw the elephant roaming the land and the microbe living in its belly. He counted every star in the sky and every hair on Adam’s head.

The Lord who saw all things then has never blinked. The Bible says,

We often read this as though it were a bad thing! We always think of God catching us when we do something wrong. That’s true, He does that. But that is not how we’re to think of His all-seeing gaze. II Chronicles 16:9 says

I Peter 3:12 says much the same thing,

Believers ought to think of Him—not as a traffic cop watching every car that goes by, hoping to catch a speeder, but as a Loving Father who keeps a sharp eye on His children—for their good.

When you think of how often we need the Lord’s care—and how badly we need it—it’s good to know that He can survey the whole creation with one look. And, unlike a camera, He can focus on everything at the same time.

From the Lord’s review of all He made, Henry draws a lesson,

Self-awareness is one part of the Divine Image. A dog may remember the man who beat him, but he does not think about himself. You’ll never see a dog looking in a mirror, for example, or wondering if he has body odor!

But we can review our lives and pass judgment on what we have done. We ought to. Self-examination is good for the soul. The best time to do it is at the end of the day. I have a hard time remembering what I did on June 7, 1978—or even last week! But, with a little thought, I can think over the last sixteen hours—repent of my wrongs and give thanks for what I did right.

When it comes to self-examination, we can overdo it! There’s a kind of person who makes himself sick with introspection. But let’s face it, that not our biggest problem! Most of us don’t do enough of it. Some of the reasons are sinful—we know we’ve done wrong, but don’t want to face it. But there’s another reason, especially for people living when we are: we won’t turn off the noise of TV or radio when we go to bed. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time reviewing my day while watching Jay Leno or confessing my sins while listening to the post game show on the radio.

If God made time to review His day, you can too.

Having reviewed His work, the next thing God does is offer an evaluation of it. Henry says,

If you witness to unbelievers very often, it won’t be long until one says, "If God is good, why did He make such a mess of the world?" The short answer is: He didn’t—we did.

Everything bad about the world now wasn’t there at the beginning. There was no pain or sorrow or death; there were no earthquakes, hurricanes or tidal waves; there were no weeds, crab grass, or runaway bamboo.All these things are here now because of sin (which God didn’t create).

Would you blame a landlord for the damage the renters did to his apartment? If not, don’t blame the Lord for what sinners have done to His world. Solomon knew what he was talking about:

From God’s satisfaction with what He had made, Henry draws two lessons:

First of all, praise God.

This—I think—could be worded better than it is, but you get the idea. The whole creation praises God, but Man was given the mind and the mouth to put that praise into words. We ought to do that. The Psalms do it and so do the great hymns of the Church.

If we put our heads together, we could spend several hours citing verses and hymns that praise the Lord or tell others to do it. If the work of creation is very good, we ought to praise the Lord for it. And if it’s very good to us, we ought to thank Him from the bottom of our hearts.

The second lesson he draws is wait on God.

This is a good point. Just imagine a critic standing alongside God during the Creation Week and all the objections he might have lodged with the way things were going. Looking at the First Day, he might say, "What a mess". When the waters were separated, thus making an atmosphere, he would chide, "Air is good, but there’s no one there to breathe it". When the fish and birds were made, he’d gripe, "But that makes the land seem so empty". When the animals came out of the earth, he’d grumble, "Yeah, but who’s going to name them and take care of them?" When Man was made, he’d wonder about his mate. When Adam and Eve were both made, he might complain, "But what are they going to eat?"

It is not until everything is finished that the critic would have to say, "Oh, now I see. It’s perfect".

What’s true of the first creation is also true of the New Creation. Salvation is not a one-time act! It’s a long series of Divine acts and works. Looked at near the beginning, you wouldn’t think much of it. But, looking at the whole thing leaves you fumbling for words.

What magnificence! A disgusting worm of a sinner is predestined to life, called in time, and justified by faith; he grows in grace and dies in hope; his spirit goes to heaven where it is perfected; later, his body is raised from the dead and the old sinner—the same man—is fitted with a body that bears a striking resemblance to the body of His Glorified Savior, Jesus Christ.

The critics of God and the doubters of His salvation are shut for ever.

We need to remember that when tempted to despair at our sins. We know a sin is wrong and we’re ashamed to have ever done it. We watch and pray against it; we swear to never do it again—but then we fall into again. How discouraging this is! Until we remember that, though we’re saved right now, we’re not fully saved. God is still working on us. One day that shameful lust or filthy pride will be no more. You wouldn’t know it by looking at us right now, but one day we’ll be perfect.

We also need to remember this when tempted to write other Christians off—as though they’ll never change. Yes they will—some in this life, and in the life to come, the change will be complete. In the meantime, we can love them as they are, pray for them, and correct them as rarely and tenderly as we can.

Finally, Henry says something about the timing of creation,

If you could do a job in one second, would you spend six days on it? Most of us wouldn’t. But God did. He spent that extra time on it for two reasons, Henry says:

• Because He wanted to.

• To teach us to wait for Him.

Both need underlining! God is not bound by our expectations! He doesn’t have to do what we tell Him to do or when we tell Him to do it. He’s the Lord and we’re the servants—and not the other way around.

Several years ago, I went to a debate between a Christian and an Atheist. The atheist was a man, about sixty years old, and very smart and articulate. But when he tried to prove there is no God, he had to resort to an argument something like this:

Some morons in the audience nodded their heads in agreement. But then the Christian got up and called the argument what it was: the rantings of a spoiled brat. What would you think of parents who kept giving in to their kids’ blackmail?

Parents are not obliged to prove their love in these stupid and dangerous ways. And God is not bound to prove His existence or His goodness by doing everything we tell Him to do when we tell Him to do it!

The Bible says God is good and wise and powerful—and He is. It’s our job—not to demand proof—as Israel did in the Wilderness, but to

…coming in God’s way and in His good time.

It’s not easy to wait on the Lord, but we have no choice: we can’t make Him do anything. We do have a choice, however, about how we wait on Him. We can do it patiently or impatiently; in faith or in unbelief; in hope or in despair.

What does the Creation Week tell us to do? It tells us to wait in faith and see the Lord do everything you wanted Him to do—only more and better. The End will be like the beginning,