God made creation for a purpose (Genesis 1)
Another thing we notice in this highly structured creation account of Genesis 1 is that God does things intentionally here. God chose to create this thing here, and then that thing there.There was a reason for everything. There is a logic, some of which we can make out in Genesis 1, and some that only makes sense when we consider the wider Bible.
It is clear that people have a very critical role in God’s creation. We see this later on in Genesis 1 and 2. But for now, notice that it is only people who are made in God’s image and likeness. It is only people who are told to subdue the world and have dominion over it. Mankind was made to look after the rest of creation, an important role, a leadership role.
Those of us who know how the story progresses after Genesis 1 will know that the perfect world did not last very long. People turned from God and did what they wanted, not what God wanted. This caused incredible pain and damage to people, to the world, and to our relationship with God. God knows everything. God knew this would happen when He made the world. He knew that when He made it, it would lead to the great cost of his son Jesus dying on the cross to save all who believe. And yet God still made the world. He made it knowing it would need redeeming; it would need saving.
Genesis 2:1-3 sounds like an ending:
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Gen. 2:1-3 ESV)
Things are perfect, God says they are very good, and God rested. Yet it is also a beginning. There is so much more after this. Again, Colossians 1 fills in some of the gaps, along with many other passages. God worked through history to save his people, and to bring his people together into the new creation. The person who is most critical is Jesus. Creation was supposed to point us to God’s perfection and power, and to seek after Him, according to Romans 1 and Acts 17. If people did this, and realised their sin, they would come to Jesus and be saved.
This world we live in, however ordered and beautiful it is, points to something, or more specifically Someone, bigger than itself. God is the focus, not the creation. Many people in history have mixed this up and worshipped the sun, the moon, rivers and mountains, or special people. The purpose of creation is Jesus. We might enjoy God’s world and ignore Jesus, in which case we’ve missed the most important thing.
Humanism would tell us that the world we live in came about through infinite time plus chance. Just the survival of the fittest, long slow evolution, and genetic mutation. That view is depressing. There is no purpose, no meaning to anything. That’s not the picture here in Genesis 1. You cannot reconcile the theory of evolution with what we are told here in Genesis 1. God made the universe for a purpose. God made things according to their kinds. God created the world with certain creative acts, not just random mutation. We live in a world made for a bigger purpose, for Jesus. That is a much more comforting, and true, thought.