Pastor Chris Plekenpol and his guests explore the Bible together one chapter at a time. They offer practical insights, theological depth, and real-life applications. Dive in for engaging discussions that bring God’s Word to life, one chapter at a time!
Light shows up on Day 1. The sun and moon do not show up until Day 4. That single detail in Genesis 1 can either spark a pointless fight or open up a deeper, more worshipful way of reading the Bible. We dig into what the text actually emphasizes: God is the point, God is the source, and God is the goal of everything. Creation is not just a backdrop for human life, it is a stage where God’s glory and intention take center place.
We also spend time on one of the most debated phrases in the chapter: “Let us make man in our image.” Is it a royal we? A divine council scene like readers explore in works such as Michael Heiser’s Unseen Realm? Or do Christians rightly see Trinitarian fingerprints when we look back through the lens of Christ and passages like John 1 and the Spirit hovering over the waters? We lay out the options clearly, keep the theology grounded in monotheism, and ask the next question that actually matters: what does the image of God mean for your identity, conscience, and calling?
From there, we move into the cultural mandate of Genesis 1: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. We talk stewardship, civilization, and why God’s pattern is order first, then life and flourishing. If your life feels chaotic, this chapter gives a practical blueprint: let God’s word reorder your heart, your home, your work, and your community. If this conversation helped you read Genesis 1 with fresh eyes, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review.
All right, we're so glad all of you are here. This is Pastor Plague. Joining me is Cody Sparks from the Cody Sparks band, and none other than Pastor Holland Greg from Eastside Community Church. So glad to have both you gentlemen with me as we talk about Genesis 1. Now, Holland, talk to me about some great insights that you've been given about Genesis 1.
Pastor Holland
All right. So for me, I think in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, the very first line of Genesis 1 is uh sets the stage for, you know, the entire story of Scripture with uh God is the point. God is the creator of everything, he's the goal of everything. I think understanding that that from the very first line of scripture, we see God is the point, the source, the goal of all things. Right.
For me, I the thing that I um I don't know if it's a struggle or it's an interesting thought or something that I just was like, that's odd or neat or cool, is the sun and the moon don't appear until day four. Uh a light to rule over the day and uh and a light to rule over the night. Uh so how was there light in the first day? Because he said, Let there be light. What was the light from? Do we know?
Pastor Holland
God. I was gonna say in uh the world in in Revelation when it talks about the new creation, it says there will be no need for sun, right because the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lamb will shine as light. And so God is light. I think the light could be coming from the glory of God Himself. I love that.
Pastor Plek
So here's the thing I also think about is if there is no sun and moon, and a and a day is derived from an earth spinning around uh or rotating around the sun, sun orbiting, orbiting the sun once. Uh how are days? I'm sorry, that's a year. Doing one circular motion. Yeah, I was like, wait a minute. Uh so if if earth rotating once, you know, so that the sun rises and goes down, that's that and up again, that's a day. Um how do you have a day without a sun or a moon?
SPEAKER_00
Hey, doc, don't look over here at me. This is a double.
Pastor Plek
So what I so this is where people they're young earth, old earth, I think you have you have, which is wild, right? You've got one day, two day, three day. The sun and moon don't come until the fourth day. So that gives you a lot of options. I know there's a lot of young earth and a lot of old earth who want to just battle it out. You just don't know, and it's a poetic version. And so I don't want to, I'm not saying I'm not this isn't an argument for young earth, but it's also not an argument for old earth. I I just want us to kind of see like there's a lot of interpretation in this poetry of this, these verses, and I think you can argue both. I've I've seen both argued by very good Christian people who love God, and I don't know if that's the place where you want to seat your faith, is in how your ability to conclude how old uh the earth is. Uh, but I do think it's a great thing to understand is that God did a lot of stuff before there was a sun and a moon. Right. Fair fair okay. How
about um what about this? Let us make God in his in our in our own image. Let us make man. Sorry, let's say. Thank you. Let us make man in our own image. Thank you. Uh so what who's the us in that, Holland? Would you what's your gander? It's God. All right, that's good. So would you would you go with because the um one of my new favorite books is Michael Heiser's book, uh Unseen Realm, and where he talks about divine counsel. And I'm gonna say it could be, right? It could be also could be a Trinitarian view. It also could be just about anything that you want to go with. So your thoughts would be it's just a Trinitarian us, royal we kind of thing.
Pastor Holland
Um yeah, are you saying those are the same thing?
Pastor Plek
No, no. Royal we are two and Trinitarian view are two different. Is like uh yeah, it it they're not the same, but although they could be.
Pastor Holland
Yeah, well, I was gonna say, I mean, the royal we idea is that you know, re referring in plural form to a singular person or identity to um indicate majesty and um you know high status and all that, right? And so I think uh it could be that, and I'm I'm sure that that's how it was probably um read, either as that or the divine council. Obviously, no one was reading it in a Trinitarian way before Christ, right? So you think they were reading it in a divine council way? Aaron Powell Uh or royal we. Either one of those makes either one works. Yeah. There's good arguments for both of those. There still is only one God.
Pastor Plek
Even if you believe in a divine council, that's just angels and principalities and authorities that God uses to rule in a um uh a shared rule with the heavenly host, which he's now having a shared rule with the humans, which is his desire is to uh always work with and never do anything completely alone, although he is completely sufficient in and of himself.
Pastor Holland
Yeah, I think the problem there is we're not made in the image of angels, we're made in the image of God.
Pastor Plek
Uh God sure, but I I think the hard part though, what is the image of God mean? Would that mean that there's ability to know good from evil? Because that's what it seems to say in uh Genesis three, like, oh no, now they'll be able to know good from evil like us. Like us. And so I think that might be a place where that's the that's the divine aspect of the immortal part of the conscience, which we could be getting into. Uh, but I do think the primary thing here is that God is the author, God is the source. And um, although scholars go all sorts of different ways with uh what let us make uh man in our own image uh means, it is clear that God is the author, he is the perfecter, he is uh the creator of all those things.
what else did you see here? I was gonna say you do see uh hints about the Trinitarian reality of God already in you know the first few verses where it says in verse two that the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Right. And so, you know, I think we know now, knowing the Trinitarian um reality of who God is, his Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we can look back and go, okay, obviously God was doing this work of creation in his Trinitarian way, right? Right. Um we know from John chapter one that mimics uh a lot of this language, and um that how uh in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, as well as from here the spirit of God hovering over the face of the water. So you see all three persons of the Trinity involved in the act of creation. The spirit and the word is which is which is the creative act of what's right.
Okay. Um, what can we if we're gonna apply anything from this, uh is it what would what would that be uh for you, Holland?
Pastor Holland
So for me, you know, right after it says um, let us make man in our image, you get verse 28 that God blessed them and he gives a mission to mankind. Yeah. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion. And so this is what's referred to as like the cultural mandate, the the original, you know, mission and command from God. Here's what you're supposed to do with your life as being made in his image, you are his representative on earth to rule over the earth, under God, and to fill the whole earth with his glory. Um and so I I think application of this is what does it look like for us to really take that mission to heart, to have dominion, um, to have rule under God, over the earth, really to bring the whole earth into um serving and glorifying God, starting with our heart, um, moving on to our home, moving on to our church, moving on to society. How do we see the rule and reign of Christ um in all of these places, submitting to him and glorifying
Yeah, I love that. And and what's kind of interesting is the word subdue is the Hebrew word kibosh. I don't know if anyone's familiar with the phrase uh put the kibosh on somebody. That means, you know, it's a smack down. Yeah, it's like I'm gonna kiosh that person. And that means like a forceful, violent, uh to a point like I'm going to subdue and rule uh word. And um, so that means that there's you know work to be done to civilize the world, which is sort of wild to think about that God created something that he wanted man to civilize. I think sometimes, um, and I'm not this is not a bash on nature, but sometimes we can kind of look at nature and sort of see the beauty of the wild, but that God has called us to subdue it. And that's sort of a and I think this is where um the making of gardens and the making of things that are uh natural or of like facilitating spaces that are naturally inclined to see God's beauty at work is part of our role, but also that that to civilize the world is actually also a part of our role, which I thought was sort of fascinating.
Pastor Holland
Yeah, it solves the original problem that you get in verse two. It says the earth was without form and void, Hebrew tohu, vobohu. Yeah, those words uh you could also think of it as uninhabitable and uninhabited. Right. And so the the goal of man is to make the world inhabitable and inhabited, to civilize it and fill it, um, to make the whole world a place where you can live and not just live, but live unto the glory of God.
Pastor Plek
Which is wild. We live in Texas right now, and you know, a hundred years ago, living in Texas would have been really, really hard with the amount of heat, uh, with that the lack of air conditioning. And now rain. Yeah, and now it's the most able because of our irrigation, of our ability to harness the power of the different resources God has put on this planet for us to use to so that we've used to further subdue more of the earth. And so um that doesn't mean you want to abuse the earth, but it does mean you want to use the earth, what God intended for us to subdue it and bring order to the chaos.
SPEAKER_00
And that's why I was that was what I was about to say. Before this, before creation, the universe had it was chaos, and then God spoke, and there was order, yeah, and that we need to apply that in our lives. That when our lives are chaos, um, that he's there.
Pastor Holland
Uh yeah, he may he God spoke and he took the chaos into order and then filled it with life. That is our role. We do like God does, to the extent that he's entrusted to us as his image bearers, to bring order that can sustain life and cause it to flourish.
So I'd say one of the things that you could apply here uh as you're reading God's word today is bring order to your own life. And that starts with God's word, it ends with God's word. You put it, get a if you're a man, that's like having a solid work and purpose to do that fits within uh being fruitful and multiplying and filling the air, subduing it and having dominion over everything. And I think that and that doesn't look look like you're gonna be an uncivilized conqueror, but what it does mean is that you're gonna bring order to the part of the world that God has given you dominion over, and it's an exciting thing to think about. So that might be your marriage, that might be your own personal life, that might be your workplace. Uh, wherever it is, you want to bring God's order into the world. Amen. It's good. All right. Hey, thanks for watching and listening. We will see you tomorrow as we take a chapter a day.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
