BIAY Day 1 - The Beginning

Genesis 1-2, Psalm 1

Welcome to the Bible in a Year for 2025. Series intro and resource links available here, plus here’s how I’m approaching this year.

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Scriptures for Today:

• Genesis 1

• Genesis 2

• Psalm 1

Reflection:

A very basic question for a given passage in the Bible—and the Bible as a whole—is: What does this passage say about God? What picture of God is this passage painting?

This is a particularly good question to consider for Genesis 1-2. Often the “how” and “when” questions are treated as most important. But the questions at the heart of these creation narratives (the grand, sweeping scale of Genesis 1 and the earthly, up-close tale of Genesis 2), are actually “who” and “why.”

Who is the God conveyed in Genesis 1-2? What is His character like? Here’s what I see.

• Powerful: God commands the various forces and elements of the universe and they obey. Creation doesn’t require strenuous labor on God’s part, only the expression of His will: “Let there be light,” etc.

• Both orderly and creative: We often consider engineers and artists as quite different types of people, but here we discover a God who is both structured and spontaneous, imposing order on chaos and expressing marvelous creativity.

• Generous: God’s provision in the garden is extravagant. And the food provided is expressed in terms of blessing and invitation: “You are free to eat…” (2:16). The limitation (“but you must not eat…”) is singular, while the provision is bountiful.

• Compassionate: Genesis 2 shows God caring for the man He created. He provides food for sustenance and boundaries for spiritual health. Next, He addresses the man’s emotional and relational wellbeing. God states, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Then He goes to great lengths to assure that this will not be the, ultimately solving this problem through the creation of woman. Among the points here, including establishing the marriage relationship, is that God has compassion for the human beings He has made and desires them to be healthy and whole.

And what of Psalm 1?

It very much belongs at the beginning of any trip through the scriptures because it keeps clear before us the purpose of the Bible, why God gave us this book of stories and poetry and proverbs and commands and letters and visions. It exists for us to delight in and meditate upon so that we can become healthy persons who recognize and enjoy the blessings of God and who bear fruit, that is, who share the blessing of God with the world around us. I can’t help but think of 2 Timothy 3:15-17, which says it this way:

…how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Questions:

• What characteristics of God do you see represented in the creation texts?

• What does Psalm 1 say to you about how to approach reading the Bible?

• What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?

Prayer: Lord, write your word upon my heart and mind, that I may grow in blessing and be a blessing to others. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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