LESSON 1
In the Beginning
Teaching Material.—Genesis 1:1 to 2:3.
Pupil’s Reading.—Genesis 1:1-5.
Memory Text.—In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1.
LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES
Nehemiah 9:6; Job 12:7-10; 26:7-14; Psalms 19:1-6; 33:6-9; 74:16, 17; 90:2; 95:4, 5; 104:1-35; Jeremiah 51:15, 16; Amos 4:13; John 1:1-3; Revelation 4:11.
FROM THE COMMENTATORS
What, then, are the truths taught us in these chapters? The first is that there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just grown of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great deal has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the efficiency of material causes to produce what we see around us; but when we ask what gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them to the production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, the answer must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose.—The Expositor’s Bible, Genesis, Marcus Dods.
The record is not a geological treatise, but a hymn of praise to God, magnifying his mighty works, indicating man’s high relation to him, and hallowing the weekly Sabbath, which is man’s day of rest.—The Handy Commentator, A. R. Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury.