What Is Genesis 1-18

In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 God lays out the order in which he created and made things by the power of his spoken word. He chose to do his creative or restorative work in six literal twenty-four hour days. It is evident that he could have spoken it all into existence in an instant, but instead he chose to divide it into these six literal days for a distinct purpose. As we examine this historical account it is of interest to note that he calls nearly everything that was made good, with the exception of a couple of things. First, he does not call the darkness good in Genesis 1:2-5. Then, on the second day when he divides the waters above from the waters below and establishes the firmament in the midst that he calls Heaven, he does not call

In verse 8, we learn in relation to the creation that we are not to be ignorant of this one thing, "that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day." This passage is talking about the coming of the Lord and how some before his coming will begin to mock and say that he will not keep his promise to return because he has delayed so long. They will say that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:1-10). They reveal their ignorance when they say this by ignoring the fact that God brought judgment to the whole earth once before, with the flood, after a long period of being longsuffering. They fail to see that his delay in coming and bringing judgment again is a result of his longsuffering mercy as well, and thus, they miss the opportunity to

Each of these days, although they were literal twenty-four hour days, prophetically represented one-thousand-year time spans revealing to us his plan for the ages. Literally, he says in Exodus 16:26, 20:9,11, and 23:12 that mankind is to work six days and the on the seventh day we are to rest from our work, just as the Lord did his work in six literal days and rested on a literal seventh day. Prophetically though, this reveals to us that the time that God has established for man to have dominion on the earth, to have stewardship over His creation, and to labour in His harvest fields for souls will be a time span of 6000 years. At the end of that time span, the Lord will come to those husbandmen to whom he had given stewardship and they will give an accounting of how they have managed his vineyard. Mark 12:1-9 gives us this scenario, as do other parables Jesus laid out as warnings to Israel. At the end of this six thousand years, Jesus will come and rule and reign for one thousand years where there will be peace on earth. This thousand year reign is a time of rest and is referred to as the millennial kingdom. During this millennial kingdom which is prophesied of in Revelation 20:1-6, swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks as is foretold in Isaiah 2:4, Joel 3:10, and Micah 4:3. Satan will be bound during