For all of human history, we have been trying to explain how the universe came into being, or how its basic structure is formed. In the days of Moses, most people believed in fantastic mythological creation stories, personifying the forces of nature into a multitude of gods having sex or fighting with each other, and the universe coming into being as a result.

In contrast, the Biblical explanation is a model of restraint – “Then God said.” God simply spoke the universe into existence. And since God made human beings in His own image (v. 26), we are able to learn at least some of the languages He spoke.

Now, we’re having a hard time understanding what He said during the first three days. While our physicists have been able to tease out quite a bit about the relationship between matter and energy, light and darkness, we haven’t really been able to go beyond verse 3. The Big Bang theory, after all, is just a mathematical way of saying that matter and energy suddenly came into being out of nothing. We know that God spoke light into existence, but we have no idea of what He said.

Just so, our astronomers can carefully calculate the effects of gravity, explaining how it can collapse masses of hydrogen into brilliant stars and how it can coordinate the motion of the planets. But all of that happened on day 4 (vv. 14-19). On that day, God was speaking the language of physics. In contrast, the language, the very nature of gravity itself, exactly how matter attracts other matter remains a mystery. The separating and gathering that God spoke on day 2 is simply beyond our hearing.

And think about the marvelous work God did on day 3, when He created the plants. Yes, human beings have been able to change the shape and character of plants for years through cross-breeding – prehistoric Native Americans bred sunflowers and maize (corn) into the forms we currently recognize. But our modern language of botany really just involves tending and keeping the Garden God gave to us (2:15). In contrast, no one has ever been able to explain the essential language of plants, understanding exactly how chlorophyll can turn light into sugar. Like the essence of light and the essence of gravity, the essence of photosynthesis remains mysterious, magical.

Of course, the closer we get in creation to ourselves, the more control we have over the world around us. In fact, God specifically gave us dominion over the creatures of days five and six, and with our newfound knowledge of genetics, we know more than ever about the language of life – DNA. Today, we can not only crossbreed animals to enhance their characteristics – we can insert genes from one species into another. But we are still just rearranging the things God said, even as we marvel at how He spoke every form of life into existence, using different combinations of words made up of just four letters, four different amino acids.

And God said. That really says it all.

Genesis 1:3-28 (ESV)

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.
12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
16 And God made the two great lights– the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night– and the stars.
17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”
21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds– livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”