Ordering the Chaos (Genesis 1)

Summer Camp 2026

Introduction

How are things made?

I’m a product manager Monday to Friday – 9 to 5 

Now, I don’t manage anything tangible, anything physical, I rely on a team of software engineers to make lines of code – that amazingly become a feature on my product people want to use and buy

Some of you are carpenters, or welders, bakers, or cooks

Whatever it is... we get the gist of what it is to make something

We take resources, materials, or ingredients, and we combine them – using our skills

               And make something new

You can’t eat flour, but combine it with milk and eggs, and you get pancakes

Today... we’re going to look at how

God transformed the "formless and empty"

into a purposeful masterpiece through His Word

The Context: The Foundation of All Things

Genesis (meaning "origins" or "beginnings") serves as the "seed plot" of the entire Bible

That is, where the themes of the entire Bible are planted in miniature

We are going to read Genesis 1 in a moment

And it’s this chapter that provides the rest of the biblical narrative with its foundation

Its starting place!

It introduces us to the Creator

It shows us the nature of the physical world,

and the unique status of humanity

It sets the stage for the Fall (which we find in Genesis 3)

and the eventual need for redemption

Moses wrote this to the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings after the Exodus

Having lived in Egypt for 400 years, they were surrounded by polytheistic myths (“many” “gods”)

Where "gods" fought each other to create the world out of violence

Genesis 1 is a protest against such beliefs

And it tells Israel:

Your God did not struggle with other gods; He spoke, and it was.

The sun and moon are not deities to be feared; they are lamps He hung in the sky

Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

⁹ And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,    in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Now, there are lots and lots of ways to interpret Genesis 1

and the “way” God created the world

There is the Gap theory

This view suggests that a vast span of time occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, and is often used to account for the fossil record

There is the Day-Age theory - This view takes the Hebrew word for day (yom) as long geological epochs or indefinite periods of time rather than literal 24-hour cycles

The Framework theory - This interpretation views the seven-day structure as a literary device

meant to organise creation topically focusing on the "forming" and "filling" of the world rather than as a chronological timeline

The Temple Inauguration theory - This view suggests that Genesis 1 is not about the material "manufacturing" of the world, but about God assigning functions to the cosmos to serve as His "cosmic temple”

And the Historical creationism theory - This theory argues that Genesis 1:1 describes the creation of the entire universe over an unspecified period, while the subsequent six days describe God specifically preparing the land of Eden for humanity

And the 24-hour theory - This is the literalist view which maintains that God created the entire universe in six consecutive, 24-hour days as we understand them today

This doesn’t even take into account the scientific views – that don’t even include a creator...

But why have I just filled your mind with all these options, flooded your mind?

Possibly even got you to think about something you have never thought about before?

This was really important to me when I was exploring and coming to faith

It mattered to me

I studied Geology at Uni – fossils, plant formation, tectonic plates, etc

 So, I looked into it... and I came to 2 startling outcomes

               1) No one knows – that’s why there are so many views, ideas, options

               2) I’m not sure we’re supposed to

I think if God wanted us to know the nuts and bolts of universe creation

He would have provided more than just 1 chapter in a 66-book volume

Or more than 31 verses out of 31,086 (that’s 0.1%... not 1% - 0.1%)

               Lego instructions – this brick to this brick... next page

So, what is the point of these 31 verses?

They are the foundation of the rest of the bible – yet they don’t show us the instruction manual of how He did it... So, what are they showing us?

What can we or do we get out of these marvellous verses?

4 Key Movements

Well, like a great composer of music, this chapter is made up of 4 movements, 4 aspects, bringing us forward into the cosmic and beauty of God’s hand over the universe

1. The Power of the Divine Word

We begin with the pre-creation state

Formless and empty (“tohu wa-bohu”)

There was nothing

No team of coders, no raw materials, no wood to carve, no clay to mold

Nothing!

And it is into this dark, chaotic void that God does His work

He does not use tools or physical effort...

               No... He uses speech

"And God said..."

Ten times in this chapter, God speaks, and reality shifts

This reveals that God is a communicative Being

whose authority is absolute

This shows us the difference between a "wish" and a "command"

A king doesn't have to build the road himself... he speaks the decree, and the kingdom moves to build it

Here, God’s Word is the ultimate command

It does what it says

So, whether the days are days, or there is a time gap in the verses, or even if it’s metaphoric or poetry

It doesn’t matter...

God wanted it – and He made it so

Out of nothing – something was made

Just simply through Him speaking

This shows us that if God’s Word has the power to create the universe, it has the power to recreate our lives i.e. There is nothing He cannot do!

This has 2 huge implications for us

1) If we are here and we haven’t given our life to Jesus...

We can do 2 things with this information...

A) We can dismiss it, ignore it, reject it, poo poo it

B) We can humble ourselves before God and accept that God is the creator

And He can remodel me and my life

2) If you are a follower of Jesus, you can take this as a point of reflection

               Is there something in your life that is holding you back from allowing God to continue His work on you

Perhaps we need to audit our own speech

Do our words bring "light" to our various communities – to build them up or do they add to the "darkness" of gossip and negativity?

The start of the year is always a good time for self-reflection

Hebrews 11:3

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

God does not struggle with chaos, He speaks to it, and chaos must obey

He can do the same in you

2. The Architecture of Grace (Forming the Spaces)

Once we see the power of the divine Word

               We move to see God as the Architect of Grace

God addresses the problem of "formlessness" (tohu)

He begins by creating boundaries

He separates light from dark, sky from water, and land from sea

He is building the "rooms" of the house

This shows us that our God is a God of order, not confusion

He creates "spaces" where life can eventually flourish

When you’re building something, you always start with the foundation

An artist has to prepare the canvas they’re about to paint on – so the paint sticks to it

An Architect draws the design on the page – the blueprint... of what the building is going to look like

The builder pours the foundations and constructs the frame of the house

Before you move furniture in, the walls must be in place – the roof on

These boundaries aren't restrictive; they are protective and needed

I believe that the world we live in can be a very chaotic place

So often we can find ourselves overwhelmed by anxiety – the busyness of life

Maybe caused by our chaotic schedule

We are so often seeking a place of rest

               Our little nook in our lives to rest and recharge

We can find that by mirroring God’s order

We can do this by establishing "godly boundaries"

Setting ourselves a Sabbath rest,

Might be ensuring we are disciplined about our prayer time

Perhaps it’s just as simple as saying "no" to things that clutter the soul or even our schedule

Paul, writing to a Church in chaos – about how they should worship writes

1 Corinthians 14:33

³³ For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

God creates boundaries not to limit our freedom, but to provide a foundation for our flourishing

3. The Abundance of the Father (Filling the Void)

Having solved the "formless" problem, God now solves the "emptiness" (bohu)

He fills the spaces He created

The sky gets birds, the sea gets fish, and the land gets animals

This reveals a God of "extravagant abundance"

He doesn't just create one kind of fish – He creates a teeming ocean

He is a Provider who delights in life

I have an image of expecting parents – With a baby on the way, the parents have time to prepare. One of the things they do is decorate the baby’s room...

The crib, the clothes, and the toys are all there

The "filling" of that room is an act of love for the child that’s coming

This is God, acting as the loving Father in heaven He is

He has formed the spaces and now He has filled them

               Through His abundant love

When mankind fell (Genesis chapter 3), sin entered the world – greed, gluttony and pride

               Our emptiness needed to be filled because we had our closeness –

our connection with God... cut off!

So now we have a "scarcity mindset", that is the fear that we don’t have enough

Genesis 1 shows us a God of "more than enough"

We can move from "emptiness" to "fullness" by aligning our daily work with His provision

Philippians 4:19

¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

God will meet all our needs

God forms the environment before He fills it

Through God there is never a void – only abundance

According to the riches of His glory in Jesus

4. The Mirror of the Maker (The Imago Dei)

The fourth movement is the climax of the account

And this is where we see that humanity is not just another animal

We are the Imago Dei—the Image of God

The mirror of the maker

We are the "statues" of the King... placed in His garden to represent His rule

We are given the "Mandate" to steward, manage, and care for the earth

This establishes the inherent dignity of every human being

               This is the tremendous value God holds us in

In the ancient world, a King would set up a statue of himself in a far-off province to show that he ruled there

We are God’s living statues!

How we treat others is how we treat the King’s image

The application here is easy to see, but also wide in its impact on your life

1) You are loved by the creator –

You are valued by God –

Worthy of salvation

2) We are to be good stewards

To manage and care for all that God has given us

3) We are to treat others as we would ourselves

Yes, that includes the "difficult" person at the supermarket

or the coworker you’re challenged by

4) We are to be God’s witnesses into our various communities – friends, family

To know that we are the mirror of the maker is to recognise that there are no "ordinary" people—only divine masterpieces

Ephesians 2:10

¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Your worth is not defined by your utility to society, but by the identity of your creator

From Chaos to Order

Chapter 1 shows us 4 movements

               Just as a great composer takes us through a story using music

               God does this through 31 poetic verses – beautifully crafted

                              Not to show us the flatpack instructions of how

                              But the broad strokes of a master builder

God took a "formless and empty" void

and turned it into a "very good" home

He brought order to chaos

               Life from nothing

               All through His Word

His work in you still continues

               He is still in the business of ordering chaos

If your life feels formless and empty – and you live without purpose, remember that the same Spirit that hovered over the waters is hovering over you

I ask you, this week,

Identify one area of "chaos" in your life (a relationship, a habit, or your schedule)

And speak God’s truth into it

Invite the Master Architect to bring His order