Then we will go to the first Moshe book, chapter 1. And today we will look at verses 1 to 9 and 13. We take one day at a time. And this is the third day. that we will look at. Let me open up here and read the text from verse 9. God said, the water under heaven shall be gathered to one place, so that it is dry and visible. And it happened so. And God called it dry land, and the water collection he called sea, and God saw that it was good. God said, the earth shall bring forth green and fruit bearing herbs, fruit trees that after their fruits bear fruit with fruit in them, shall grow on the earth, And it happened so. The earth brought forth green, fruit bearing herbs after their harvest, and trees that after their harvest bear fruit with fruit in them. And God saw that it was good. And it became evening, and it became morning. It was the third day. On this third day, God makes Two things. He usually does one thing, we have seen earlier. Namely that he speaks. He says something and it becomes what he says. And then he makes an assessment of what he has done. And then he rests in the evening and lets it be morning before he starts again. But here we see two. Two times on the same day, God says something and what he says happens and he gives an evaluation of the matter. So the first we see in verse 9, God said, the water under heaven. As we remember, the day before, God created a layer between the water a layer that would divide water from water and there would be water above the layer and water below the layer and he called it the layer for heaven or heaven And now this water that is under this sky, that is the layer, he says that the water should be gathered to one place so that the dry land becomes visible. He says this and it happened so. It became, as he said, The water gathered in one place, and the dry became visible. And then comes God's evaluation of his work. First he gives it a name. He calls it dry land, and the water collection he calls sea. He gives them a name, and then he says, and then he saw that it was good. So he spoke, it happened, he gave your name, he evaluated and saw that it was good. But he does not stop there, he is not finished for the day, he says one more thing. He has more to say this day. Verse 11, God said, Jorden ska frambringa grönska, in the Swedish translation, or Sprout Vegetation, in English. Different translations. The Hebrew... The Hebrew basic text is a bit more playful here. It says partly that... It shall grow, grow. He uses the same root word. Grow shall grow. And there will be herbs that will sprout fruit, or grass, green, that will sprout fruit. And there will be fruit trees that bear fruit, that give fruit, with their fruits in them. And all this, he says, will come after his own kind. Fruit trees that, according to their laws, bear fruit with fruit in them, shall grow up on earth. And so it happened. And everything according to its kind. He gives a systematic order. It should not happen by chance that different trees give different varieties of fruit according to different kinds, but everyone gives according to their own kind. It is a word, a kind, that he uses here. Not the same thing as in science today when you talk about species or so, but it is There is still some kind of division of species, but not as it is used in biology today. But a kind of division. It is also not through evolution, as we see. It was like that. The earth brought forth greenery, what God said happened. The earth brought forth greenery, it reaped itself. What he says will happen is repeated exactly the same. It happens as God says, it is repeated exactly the same. And they give seeds that will quickly grow. Which will be explained later in verses 29-30. How this quick planting of plants will happen. But it is not an evolutionary process that is described here, it is not a coincidence that life arises from a mass of basic substances, of amino acids or whatever it is called, that arises spontaneously by itself, but it is God who speaks and life happens And these different species do not arise through evolution, but through God saying it. And it does not arise with one species that is developed to many different grasses and trees and species, but God creates the different species or species according to their species. You can also see here that the plants are created on the third day and still there is no sun. The plants are here before the sun. It is usually so, or is so now, that it is the sun that drives the plants to grow. Photosynthesis drives the processes that make the plants grow through its strong light. But here we see that the sun is not there. But we still know that God had already created the light. There was light before the sun. So God still didn't need a sun for light to exist. God didn't need a sun for life to be created. God said and it became as he said. And then he makes an evaluation again in verse 12, the last part of verse 12. And God saw that it was good. He does not give these different trees a name as he did before, but he evaluates what he has created and saw that it was good. These trees, the grass, the plants, were something good. And then comes the chorus, verse 13, it was evening and it was morning the third day. Again, a day and a morning. Although there is no sun, there is light and darkness, and God has called the light day. He has called the darkness night. And there is no need for a sun to circle the earth for there to be time or day. One day here. in a regular text, regular prose, is one day, 24 hours, in Hebrew. As I said before, it's not that the Hebrew word yom means the age of time and can be translated, that you can translate the Hebrew word however you want, to the age of time sometimes, and get it here in this text that God did this over Several thousand billion years. There is no room for that interpretation. It is morning and it is evening, just as we understand it. And it is a day, just as we understand it. The word for day refers to a 24-hour period, when it is a regular literary A text that tells something that happens, not poetry or something like that. This text tells straight up and down what God does, what God says, what happens. It does not make up that God says things and lies about God. and so on. It's not like we don't really understand the real purpose of this text. We have to understand the Babylonian gods and Mesopotamian myths to understand what this author really means. No, it's Moses under inspiration from God. that tells how God created the earth, heaven and earth, how God created everything. A regular text, it's a literal diary. I'm not going to go into that, but I have to repeat it. Often. Because these kinds of thoughts circulate within even reformist circles. That we don't understand the right to creative storytelling, because we ask more wrong questions, as they sometimes say. We ask more wrong questions to the text. The text wants to answer other questions that we don't ask. But if we look at the text, we see that it tells us that in the beginning God created heaven and earth. It tells us straight up and down what literally happens, how God created everything. Now to what we learn about God. We learn a number of things about God from these verses 9 to 13. First again, as always when God creates, we understand and see God's mighty power to create with his word, to speak things into existence, to get things to exist just by deciding it. God is so mighty. None of us can do that. We can take things that already exist, that God has already created, and create things from it, but we can't take a vacuum and create something. How much do we still want it? God is almighty. Think of the fantastic power Say to the great waters, the sea. And say to the sea, that you shall move. You shall move to one place, gather to one place, so that the dry becomes visible. Let the great water masses move through their formation. Let the great land masses rise and appear and move. It is a great power that can do this. And the fact that he gives them names is also a way to demonstrate his power to them, that he gives names. It is his authority to give the names sea and land and day and night. So he creates and he establishes his power and authority over creation. Later we see that he does not name the plants and the animals, but he puts Adam to rule over nature, over the plants, over the animals, and puts Adam to give name to the animals. To show man's authority, Adam's authority to govern and give name. To give name is a sign of having authority over something. We also see God's orderliness. How God is the God of order. When he separates water and land, he separates between darkness and light, he separates between sea and land, he takes what he has created in the ring and starts to organize it, put it in order, organize, sort, Put everything in its right places. Continue to create. Like when we build something, when we have bought furniture from a warehouse. And it comes in different parts. And everything in all the small parts, screws and plugs. Small pieces of metal and smaller parts are all mixed together in a bag. We have not created these yet, but we will continue to build up this furniture we have bought. So we open the bag, start separating the parts, sort them. These screws here, these bigger screws here, these smaller screws here, these plugs here, these tools here. And we have names on them, we read in the instruction book. There are names, serial numbers on these screws. Likewise, we can imagine that God does, he arranges and sorts. The building material to continue its creation, continue to create. He has created heaven and earth and separates, arranges, creates. He is the God of order. He creates things after their kind, these plants. Not a lot of random, random things. Like a chaotic painting, or surrealistic painting, with a bunch of weird plants and weird figures. Holes in the walls. It's order and order. It's specific species. Species and species of plants. who exist, who are ordained by their own kind, and who try to give bread after their own kind. Not a bunch of random stuff. God is order. God sustains for the third life. God is the sustenance of life and sustains life. Dried land is necessary for life, just as water is necessary for life. Through his vision in this creation, he maintains life. He gives possibility to life. And the plants are the first forms of life that he creates to make it possible for The coming life that we will continue to create, the animals and the humans. The plants are needed for us to get oxygen. They breathe in the carbon dioxide. They breathe out oxygen. So that we can breathe and live. They give us air. Just as they give us air and they are also food. God puts everything in order here for the living creatures that he is going to create. Which literally means that they are breathing animals or beings that breathe. They need air, so they get it from the plants that breathe and spread oxygen. For the fourth we see that God is good by creating the plants and by his creation. Paul's preaching in the apostles 14 and 15 to 17. We preach for you the happy message that you will turn from these devils to the living God who has created heaven, earth and sea and everything in them. And verse 17. Yet he has left many testimonies that he does good. From heaven he gives you rain and times with good harvests that fill your hearts with joy over the food you get. These harvests are the plants that grow with fruit and peas and grains that give the joy that shows God's goodness over the food they get. He has given, created this to food and to joy, enjoyment, joy for us. He has created the creation, a great variation of many different colors, shapes, sounds, smells, tastes. All this variation of God has been created so that we can enjoy it and thank Him for His goodness to us. There is beauty in creation in every way. Fifth, all this has been created, most of all, most of all, for Christ. Christ would become human. God himself, the Son, would become human in Jesus Christ. He would walk on this earth. He would breathe the acid. He would eat. He would drink. He would use these plants for likenesses. Jesus often talks about different plants in his likenesses. It's not like Jesus came to... It's not like it's a coincidence that it's the other way around, that Jesus only used these plants because, yes, it can be a fiffy thing to liken God's kingdom to, or liken things to, no, they were created with the purpose of being such likenesses in creation, to be symbols, symbols, role models, so that we could understand divine truths, salvation truths. So Jesus speaks of plants, he speaks of flowers, he speaks of lilies, he speaks of fronds, seeds, He gives similarities to Sod, the word that is sowed. Throne, the sons of the kingdom. He talks about sowing and reaping. He talks about trees. He uses trees in his similarities. But not only for the purpose that he would use them in likenesses or that he would enjoy them in their human form. All these things that are created are created in themselves to be role models of Christ. To be just like in the law that is full of role models and shadows of Christ, they are created to be types, role models and shadows of Christ. We see that Christ Just like the land, just like the ground, the ground came through the water. 1 John 5 and 6 speaks about Jesus. The earthly, incarnated body where God became human and was baptized. He came through the water, says John 1 John 5 and 6. He came through the water. Han döptes för att uppfylla all rättfärdighet. Kristus i blomman. Vi läser om Sarons ros, som är Kristus i höga visan. Kristus i trädet. Han säger, jag är vinträdet, ni i grenarna. Han är olivträdet, som vi innympas i. Christ is the fruit in the Lord's meal. The bread that is made of grains, the wine that is made of fruit symbolizes his body and blood. He is the fruit. He is the seed. He is Abraham's seed. He is David's seed. He is the seed that falls to the ground, as we read about in John 12 and 23, when he says, the time has come when the Son of Man shall be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, if the white cow does not fall to the ground and die, it will be a lonely cow, but if it dies, it will bear rich fruit. Jesus is the fruit that falls to the ground and dies, but grows up again and bears fruit, bears rich fruit. It speaks, of course, of his death and resurrection. He died on a tree to become the life-giving fruit and the fruit, the seed for the congregation. He died on a tree, shed his blood, To give birth, so that the congregation would grow. So it is also with the resurrection of the dead, 1 Corinthians 15.42, that which is sown in abundance, arises in abundance. That which is sown in prosperity, arises in glory. It sows a jewish body, it grows a spiritual body, and so on. He is the sesame seed, Marcus 4 of 31. What should we liken the kingdom of God to? What likeness should we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed. When you sow it, it is the smallest of all seeds on earth. But when it has been sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all vegetable plants and gets such large branches that the birds of heaven can build a nest in its shadow. He is the mustard seed that makes the society grow, so that the birds, which the noble people are talking about, will come and live in it. There will be plants and plants in the restored creation. We will drink wine with him, he says, and we will enjoy him forever. So let us, in the light of this text, enjoy nature to God's honor. We know this, we will honor God and enjoy Him forever. We will start right now. We enjoy God by enjoying nature. Look at the beauty, eat, breathe, smell, look at the colors and thank God. Then we enjoy and honor God. Be inspired by all the beautiful flowers and plants that exist. Have an understanding of how all this acknowledge God's glory and acknowledge Christ are different small images of Christ in nature. We shall sow the seed, sow the seed of the Gospel in the hearts of others, and ask God to give growth. We shall also bear fruit, Not just bear fruit by smoking us as Christians or planting the Gospel and it bears fruit in that people are saved. We should also bear fruit in good deeds. And the Bible warns, Paul warns Christians also, that what you reap you will sow. If you sow in your flesh, you will reap destruction. We should bear good fruit as Christians and not sow in the flesh, but invest justice in us. Sow these seeds and bear good fruit and look forward to the fact that this creation we see before us is only a small, small, small piece of the eternal glory The eternal, restored, renewed, glorified creation where we will be with God and worship Him forever and enjoy Him forever and enjoy all the impressions of the mind still. It's not a heaven where we float around without bodies on the clouds And it's not just white and blue. It's not what heaven is. Heaven is, as we speak, where God is. And he promises a new heaven and a new earth. Which is completely restored, which is a physical earth. A beautiful, holy land without sin, without evil, without destruction, without trees that rot, trees that stand, and so on and so on. Unbelievers must now, through this text, understand God's goodness towards you, Despite your rebellion against him, he has left testimony for you that he continues to do good for you. He lets the rain fall over the unjust and just. He gives shepherds. He makes it possible to eat and drink and breathe the air. Everything comes from God. and that God still keeps you alive even though you already deserve death, even though you already deserve judgment, you are still alive. You are like grass. We all are like grass. Jesaja 46, all flesh is grass and all its glory is like flowers on the ground. Grass dries, flowers wither when the Lord's breath blows on it. Yes, the people are grass. People are grass. We live a short time and then we wither just as the grass disappears and should stand before God, our Creator, You are weeds, says Jesus. The field is the world. Matthew 13 and 38 explain the likeness of seed and weed and field and good seed and weed. The field is the world. The good seed is the kingdom's child of Christians. The weed is the evil's child. If you are outside of Christ, you are the children of evil, and you are weeds. And as when the weeds, when harvest time comes, when the time is over, the angels come, the harvest men, and harvest. And as when the weeds gather and burn in the fire, so it shall be at the end of time. The Son of Man shall send out his angels, and they shall gather together, and take away from his kingdom all who become others to fall and live in lawlessness. And they shall cast them into the burning fire, and there shall they cry and cut their teeth. This weed is you who are outside of Christ and one day you will be sorted out and judged, gathered together and thrown into the fire that is never extinguished, where you cry and cut your teeth and where the mask never dies. But then the righteous will shine like the sun in their father's kingdom. Do you hear what your ears have to say? Turn away from your sin and ungratefulness towards your Creator. Thank Him. Turn to Christ, the true vine tree, the true olive tree that you can be imbued with, even though you are outside, even though you do not belong. By turning and believing in Christ, you will be accepted in Him. Explained justly in him, saved in him. You are transformed from a weed to a good seed. But you will reap what you sow one day. Trust in Christ, the true life. So we have seen in this text, a text that speaks of water and sea and land and soil, and weather, and grass, and weeds, and trees, and fruits, and sod. And all of this is lessons. All of this has God put into creation to speak about Christ. To speak about the coming judgment, about man's sin. Even before the fall of sin happened, God had ordered that it should happen. To show his great mercy through the salvation of great sinners. Through Jesus Christ. And all these things in creation speak of Christ. speaks of the coming judgment, speaks of the salvation and life that is only in him, that only comes from him, and the eternal life that is only in him. So let us pray together. Lord our God, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the creation, we thank you for the land and the sea, the beautiful and mighty sea that shows your power, the land masses and the mountains and the ground and the landscape that shows your glory and power and beauty, and all the plants and trees, always green and all the colors that are around us, All the scents from nature, all the colors, all the shapes, all the flavors, all the food, all that you give us, we thank you for. And we thank you for the truth of everything, the truth The true tree, the true vine, the true fruit, the true fruit, the true birth that gives eternal life, Jesus Christ himself. I pray that we will have a Christ-centered vision where everything we see speaks about you and makes us offer you and makes us Be near you everywhere and honor you and enjoy you and your creation. For the unbelievers, that they should see your glory and beauty, open their eyes to your greatness and might, your goodness and your grace, and this salvation that exists for sinners. Do all this, God, for your own honor, for your own name's sake, for Christ's sake. Amen.