1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:08,000 The Peace of the Lord, brothers! We will now talk about the first chapter of the Bible: Genesis, chapter 1. 2 00:00:08,100 --> 00:00:18,600 I'm going to read this chapter so that we can make the most of all the comments that we have in mind, okay?! 3 00:00:18,700 --> 00:00:26,000 So the Bible starts like this: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1: 1). Heaven and earth were created by God. 4 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:31,000 “The earth was formless and empty; (...) ”(Gen. 1: 2a), 5 00:00:31,100 --> 00:00:39,300 perhaps in your translation it is written: “it was formless and empty” or “it became formless and empty”, 6 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,100 here is something important that I need to [emphasize]! 7 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:50,800 Well, there is a theory that between verses 1 and 2 infinite years have passed, that you can’t count, 8 00:00:50,900 --> 00:00:56,200 God would have created the heavens and the earth and given a certain moment the earth would have become formless and empty, 9 00:00:56,300 --> 00:01:03,200 this theory is based on the fact that Satan's rebellion caused chaos on earth, 10 00:01:03,300 --> 00:01:11,900 and then it [the earth] would have had to be, in a way, remade, reformed or recreated. 11 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:24,600 This theory has an important basis, because when we read chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3, we see that the serpent appears in the Garden of Eden. 12 00:01:24,700 --> 00:01:29,000 And that serpent was used by Satan, let's say so, right?! 13 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:38,400 But had Satan, on the sixth day of creation, already rebelled and had done the whole path of rebellion happen? No… 14 00:01:38,500 --> 00:01:47,400 It would be such a short amount of time, so this theory has a certain weight when it comes to answering these questions, but I am not going to stick to it, ok?! 15 00:01:47,500 --> 00:02:00,200 The fact is that the word translated as "was" is the word "hayâh" [in Hebrew] and that word "hayâh" in Hebrew means: "to be", "to become", "to come into existence", 16 00:02:00,300 --> 00:02:06,100 it also means "to happen", and "to appear". 17 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:15,100 So several translations are possible from this word only: "the earth was formless and empty", "it became formless and empty"... 18 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:22,800 And the Bible says: “and darkness was over the face of the deep;…” (Gen. 1: 2b), what is this "deep"? It is the abyss of the sea, alright?! 19 00:02:22,900 --> 00:02:28,000 The Bible usually speaks of an abyss in the depth of the sea, because it is deep it is called "abyss". 20 00:02:28,100 --> 00:02:36,000 “(...) and the Spirit of God was hovering [moving] over the face of the waters [over the waters] ”. (Gen. 1: 2c) 21 00:02:36,100 --> 00:02:43,300 It is interesting to note that the Bible does not have a very clear description of the creation of water, 22 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:48,700 It only says that the water was already there and that the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the water. 23 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:53,700 It is also interesting to realize that the water is practically indestructible. 24 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:59,000 The water evaporates, if you heat it, it will evaporate, then there is condensation, and it rains again, right?! 25 00:02:59,100 --> 00:03:06,600 It can fall in the form of rain, you can freeze it, you can do whatever it is, it is always on the move, right?! 26 00:03:06,700 --> 00:03:09,200 "(...) and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters". 27 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:14,600 I was thinking about it and I found it interesting in how the Bible talks about water and spirit, right?! 28 00:03:14,700 --> 00:03:18,700 The Word of God is compared to water that cleanses and also to the Spirit. 29 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,700 Jesus says: “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life”. (Jn 6:63b) 30 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:26,800 and He also says: "You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you" (Jn 15:3). 31 00:03:26,900 --> 00:03:31,700 And then He talks about water, for example, we have baptisms in the spirit and in the water, right?! 32 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,600 This is a very interesting subject, but let's continue… 33 00:03:34,700 --> 00:03:44,900 The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, "and God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light”(Ge 1: 3). 34 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:55,900 The word "be" here is the same word "haâyâh" [Hebrew], in which we say that the "earth was formless and empty" or that it "became"... 35 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:05,400 So when God said: "Let there be light", He could be saying simply like this: "Let the light appear" or "Let there be light” 36 00:04:05,500 --> 00:04:09,600 or that the light will simply appear again. 37 00:04:09,700 --> 00:04:18,100 “(...) 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness” (Ge 1:3,4). 38 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:28,700 Notice that darkness already existed, so it goes on like this: “God called the light Day; and the darkness He called Night. 39 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:35,000 And there was evening and there was morning, [in the translation I am using it is written like this:] first day”(Gen. 1: 5). 40 00:04:35,100 --> 00:04:40,200 But I have to comment about this: the Hebrew text [original manuscripts] doesn’t say “first day”, 41 00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:46,300 it actually says "one day", I will show you that it says "echad yom" [Hebrew]. 42 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:57,900 That word "echad" means "one", it should be translated as "one day". "There was evening and there was morning, one day", that is, there was darkness and there was... 43 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:02,500 there was night and there was day, one day. 44 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:08,600 Because the word "first day" is "ri’shôwn yom" [in Hebrew], 45 00:05:08,700 --> 00:05:19,300 that word "ri’shôwn" means "first" and "yom" means "day", the translation of "first day" you will find in Leviticus 23:40. 46 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:31,000 If you have an app, any way to consult the [original] Hebrew text, you will find that "ri’shôwn yom" is the correct translation for "first day". 47 00:05:31,100 --> 00:05:35,600 So there [in Ge 1:5] is not necessarily written “first day”, alright?! 48 00:05:35,700 --> 00:05:48,500 And then, again, this gives a margin for this "first day" to have happened to give a "start", from the moment when the earth was in chaos. 49 00:05:50,000 --> 00:06:01,300 Verse 6: "And God said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters'" (Ge 1:6). 50 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:08,100 When God says: "Let there be an expanse", He divides the waters: the waters which were above and the waters that were below. 51 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:18,100 The word "expanse" can be written as "firmament". What is “firmament”? Something firm, a solid extended surface. 52 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:27,200 This is the correct translation for the word “râqîya´”, it means “solid extended surface”, 53 00:06:27,300 --> 00:06:36,500 you can consult a Hebrew dictionary and you will see this, “solid extended surface”, very interesting… 54 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:41,100 And if the surface is solid, what do we soon think of to be? 55 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:48,500 Waters above earth and the waters below earth, it should explain it… 56 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:54,300 But this is not what the text is saying, here it says: “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. 57 00:06:54,400 --> 00:07:05,200 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 58 00:07:05,300 --> 00:07:15,700 God called the expanse [which is solid, firm, the “firmament”] Heavens [it is not the earth yet] (...) ”(Ge 1:6-8) 59 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:27,900 This is intriguing, because God put water on top of a solid surface, He is not talking about the clouds, nor there was rain at that moment, right?! 60 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:34,300 It’s not talking about clouds, it’s talking about waters over the expanse and waters under the expanse, 61 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:39,800 God separated these waters, and named this expansion, please, draw so you understand what I’m saying, 62 00:07:39,900 --> 00:07:43,100 God named this solid expanse of "heavens", 63 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,100 "(...) and there was evening and there was morning, the second day". 64 00:07:50,300 --> 00:07:57,800 Verse 9: “And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.”(Ge 1:9), 65 00:07:57,900 --> 00:08:06,200 the “dry land”, in the singular, reminds us, if you studied geography, of the single continent that was called “Pangea”. 66 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:08,400 This was before the Flood, of course… 67 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:17,600 And it says like this: “(...) and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, [now, yes, the earth appears!]; 68 00:08:17,700 --> 00:08:22,700 and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”(Ge 1: 9,10). 69 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:31,300 So God takes the “dry land", which He calls it “Earth” and the “gathering of waters” He calls “Seas”, or “oceans”, as we also know it, right?! 70 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:51,100 Verse 11: “And God said, 'Let the earth [the dry land] 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.” 71 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:54,600 So the food was made, right?! 72 00:08:54,700 --> 00:09:01,800 “The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit [all kinds of vegetation, right?!], 73 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:10,200 in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” (Ge 1:12,13) 74 00:09:10,300 --> 00:09:17,800 Now let's move to the fourth day: "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. (...)” 75 00:09:17,900 --> 00:09:27,600 Purpose: first, to create separation between day and night, but also so that they are there to present “signs”, 76 00:09:27,700 --> 00:09:37,100 remember the signs in heaven that Jesus said that will happen when He returns. Remember that the Bible says that God speaks of the end from the beginning? 77 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,000 "(...) And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years". (Ge 1:14) 78 00:09:41,100 --> 00:09:44,700 What does it mean by “seasons"? The word for "seasons" or “set times” is “Mow’ed” [Hebrew]. 79 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:54,500 I'm going to write this word here, in a simplified version, it would be “moed”, ok?! 80 00:09:54,600 --> 00:10:04,400 What does "moed" means? It means set times for a formal meeting, for festivities, ok?! Such as New Moon Day... 81 00:10:04,500 --> 00:10:11,400 You will understand this when you begin to study the Law of God. So this is all based on the lunar cycle in Israel. 82 00:10:12,700 --> 00:10:26,600 “and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens [remember the “expanse”, the “firmament”?], T to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light (…)”. (Ge 1:15,16a) 83 00:10:26,700 --> 00:10:34,800 God, before science witnesses this... Because looking from here on earth, the moon and the sun seem to be the same size, right?! 84 00:10:34,900 --> 00:10:43,600 You look from earth, when an eclipse happens, they seem to be of equal size, but God had already witnessed this many millennia ago. 85 00:10:43,700 --> 00:10:54,300 “(...) the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 86 00:10:54,400 --> 00:11:06,500 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 87 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,900 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day”. (Gen. 1:16-19) 88 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:16,100 Notice that whatever God is doing, He does and says "this is good, this is good, and this is good”. 89 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:22,800 Now let's talk about the luminaries. 90 00:11:22,900 --> 00:11:42,800 Let's read Psalm 104, verse 19: “He made the moon for the seasons [for the appointed times]; the sun knows when to set”. 91 00:11:42,900 --> 00:11:52,700 Can you see it? God designed the moon, giving it a purpose for the seasons, it has a purpose of counting time, 92 00:11:52,800 --> 00:12:04,700 we now move on to Psalm 136, verses 5 through 9, which says the following on this subject… 93 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:13,100 You may ask yourself: "for what reason, why did God create things?” 94 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:19,600 Because every time we do a reading we must ask ourselves: where, how, why, for what, right?! Why did God do it? 95 00:12:19,700 --> 00:12:21,200 Here the psalmist will tell us… 96 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:29,700 I will read from verse 4: “To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; 97 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:37,300 to Him who by understanding made the heavens [which is the subject we're studying now], for His lovingkindness is everlasting; 98 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,800 [Why did God make the heavens? Because His kindness endures forever]. 99 00:12:40,900 --> 00:12:47,000 To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. 100 00:12:47,100 --> 00:12:59,300 To Him who made the great lights, For His lovingkindness is everlasting: The sun to rule by day, for His lovingkindness is everlasting; 101 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:06,400 the moon and stars to rule by night, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” (Ps 136: 6-9) 102 00:13:06,500 --> 00:13:10,700 Then the psalmist reveals the purpose of creation: because God is kind. 103 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:19,800 If we believe [as true] that theory that before the beginning of this creation, where its narration begins, there was a rebellion, 104 00:13:19,900 --> 00:13:31,900 then you may think: "Why is God going to do it again? Why is God going to recreate and give a new opportunity? Because His kindness lasts forever! 105 00:13:33,700 --> 00:13:43,200 Fish and birds, right? In the Bible there is something interesting about this topic, let's read verse 20: 106 00:13:43,300 --> 00:13:48,500 “Then God said, 'Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures; 107 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:59,500 and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens. And God created great whales (...)”(Ge 1: 20,21a) 108 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:05,300 Only the word does not mean “big whales”, the word here is “tannîyn” [Hebrew], and what does “tannîyn” mean? 109 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:17,700 In some translations there may be "aquatic animals", "big whales", "sea creatures", but the word [in the original Scripture] is "tannîyn", which means "dragon". 110 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:27,800 Incredibly, this word is repeated in the Bible several times, but they prefer to translate it as "jackals", "crocodiles", "sea monster", 111 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,400 but when we get to the book of Revelation, John sees a red dragon. 112 00:14:32,500 --> 00:14:37,100 Would God be using a figure of something He did not create? 113 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:47,300 Would He use it? Since He uses figures, for example, Jesus as a lamb, as a lion, a dove representing the Holy Spirit, 114 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:57,900 He uses wolves as evil figures, He uses the serpent for Satan, which is the symbol of something He created, and He uses the dragon, 115 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:04,800 then would God borrow a figure of an animal from mythology to apply to the Scripture 116 00:15:04,900 --> 00:15:09,700 simply because He didn't have another figure that He created to represent this? 117 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:20,700 This “dragon” appears in the Bible in several verses, one day I want to show this to you, especially in Job, in which the figure of Leviathan appears, 118 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:28,900 read the description and you will see if what is said there has any resemblance to a hippopotamus, or to some kind of crocodile... 119 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:38,600 no, not at all, even more because it lets fire out of the mouth, it smokes out of the nostrils, it's an almost indestructible animal, right?! 120 00:15:38,700 --> 00:15:47,500 And if there are so many testimonies in the history of mankind about the existence of dragons and the Bible uses that expression, why not put that there, right?! 121 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:58,400 But what can we do?! Let's move on, the good thing is that we know that marine animals were made here on the fifth day, as well as fish and birds of the sky. 122 00:15:58,500 --> 00:16:13,000 Let's continue our reading: “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed (...)” (Ge 1: 21a) 123 00:16:13,100 --> 00:16:19,500 About “tannîyn”, I will give you another reference for you to research: Isaiah 27: 1, ok?! 124 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:27,100 Let's continue: “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed... 125 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:34,800 [the water produced the [marine] animals, and the [terrestrial] animals were produced by the earth, 126 00:16:34,900 --> 00:16:52,300 thus: water, earth and air (the skies, which produced the birds)] after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; 127 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:57,000 and God saw that it was good [one more thing that God saw was good]. 128 00:16:57,100 --> 00:17:05,600 God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth'. 129 00:17:05,700 --> 00:17:08,100 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day”. (Ge 1: 21-23) 130 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:18,200 So let's review the fifth day in an easy way to understand it: 131 00:17:18,300 --> 00:17:30,000 fish and birds were created and God gave a command to these animals: multiply, fill the earth, populate. 132 00:17:30,100 --> 00:17:46,600 Now let's read verse 24: “Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures [the earth is creating animals] after their kind; 133 00:17:46,700 --> 00:17:56,300 cattle [in general] and creeping things and beasts of the earth [are the ferocious animals] after their kind; and it was so. 134 00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:07,400 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good”. (Ge 1:25) 135 00:18:07,500 --> 00:18:18,300 Now, after God has finished all His work, He says in verse 26: "And God said, 'Let Us make (...)", said "ʼĕlôhîym", which is a plural word, 136 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:26,100 and He continues the narrative in the plural: "Let Us make", there is the Father and the Son working in creation. 137 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:34,500 In Job it says like this: "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life". [Job 33:4]. 138 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:44,100 Genesis 1:26, 27: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our [plural] image, according to Our likeness [like Us]; 139 00:18:44,200 --> 00:19:00,600 and let them rule [here God is giving authority] over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 140 00:19:00,700 --> 00:19:07,400 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”. 141 00:19:07,500 --> 00:19:14,100 God created man upright, God did not create man messy, with flaws, I will show you this. 142 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:37,600 This is here in Ecclesiastes, in chapter 7, verse 29: "See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes”. 143 00:19:37,700 --> 00:19:43,800 God made man perfect, made him in His image, but they invented many cunning. 144 00:19:43,900 --> 00:19:54,500 The free will that God gave to man allowed, it did not induce him, but allowed him to make a choice between a good and a bad tree, 145 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:58,200 that is, there were two ways, but man chose the bad way. 146 00:19:58,300 --> 00:20:04,700 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”(Ge 1:27). 147 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:17,700 Science testifies about this, because you see that the woman came from the man, but later on, the man comes from a woman, being born from a woman. 148 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:24,300 And it’s interesting that in order for this to happen they need to have a little bit of each other, 149 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:33,200 science shows this with the chromosomes (‘XX’ and ‘XY’) and you can see that the ‘X’ chromosome is present in both. 150 00:20:33,300 --> 00:20:39,400 Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them; and God said to them, 151 00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:42,200 [look at God's commandment for man, the first commandment for them] 152 00:20:42,300 --> 00:20:48,900 Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; 153 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:54,400 and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth”. 154 00:20:54,500 --> 00:20:57,800 God is giving authority, and the commandment for them to fill the earth. 155 00:20:57,900 --> 00:21:08,200 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, 156 00:21:08,300 --> 00:21:11,800 and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;”(Ge 1:29). 157 00:21:11,900 --> 00:21:19,000 So the food of Adam and Eve was these: herbs that give seeds, and trees that bear fruit that gives seed, 158 00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:26,100 so their food was not meat, they ate only green grass in the beginning. 159 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:38,100 “and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.”(Ge 1:30). 160 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,900 Leon ate grass, ox ate grass, as it will be in the Millennium. 161 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:56,100 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”(Ge 1:31). 162 00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:03,600 On the seventh day, what happens? The Bible says that God created all things [in six days] and then He stopped creating. 163 00:22:03,700 --> 00:22:13,700 The word Saturday (“shabbat”) means “rest”, “stop”, “cease”, does not mean, literally, that God was resting, 164 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:20,500 but that He just stopped, interrupted the moment of creation, in a way, this is what happened, ok?! 165 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,500 May God bless you and we will continue on our next video.