It is worthwhile noting which points in Genesis 1–3 have less strong analogies with the present providential order. All the analogies involve both similarity and dissimilarity. So analogy is a matter of degree.
The descriptions in Genesis 1 regularly use analogies connected to the natural processes in the present-day world in order to provide a simple, easily understood, nontechnical description of what God did. Genesis 1 offers us a true description, but it does not delve into technical details that are of most interest to modern science.
Poetic passages in the Old Testament compare God’s acts of creation to the human work of building a house or erecting a tent:
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever. (Ps. 78:69)
[He] builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth. (Amos 9:6a)
[He] stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in. (Isa. 40:22b)
My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens. (Isa. 48:13a)
[He] stretched out the heavens and
laid the foundations of the earth. (Isa. 51:13b)
Providence is distinct from the work of creation, but the two are closely related. The one leads to the other. God’s works of creation establish patterns that he maintains by providence. We can see this point illustrated at some length in Psalm 104.
This psalm reflects on creation, but contains a good deal of material that meditates on the providential governance of God subsequent to the completion of the six days of creation. One verse, verse 30, even uses the word created in a context that refers to the fact that God brings to life the next generation of animals: “When you send forth your Spirit, they [animals] are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”
God’s description of his creative works in Genesis 1 instructs the Israelites through analogies with providence.
Analogies between the acts of creation and works in providence have a key role in the meanings communicated in Genesis 1.
You can see the use of analogy by considering Psalm 104:30. God providentially brings new animals into existence, and the psalmist describes this work of God by saying that animals are created (the same Hebrew word, bara’ ברא, as in Gen. 1:1).
They are created by analogy with the original creation of new things in Genesis 1. But the relationship between the passages involves an analogy, not an identity, since Genesis 1 discusses the origins of the different kinds of animals, while Psalm 104:30 discusses the continuation of the kinds that already exist.
The use of analogies between creation and providence also makes sense because the ordinary experiences of the Israelites and other people involve interaction with God’s providential activities in the world around them.
Therefore, their experience of providence offers a natural starting point for virtually any ordinary human understanding of creation.
The Bible also provides theological reasons for expecting that God may have set in place many analogies between creation and providence:
(1) the works of creation and the works of providence come from the hand of the same God, who exercises the same wisdom in both cases (Ps. 104:24; Prov. 8:27–31);
(2) God plans that creation should form the foundation for later providential developments;
(3) God’s plan for the whole of history has inner unity, and this unity includes a fundamental unity of purpose with respect to creation and providence together; and
(4) God reflects his character in the works within the created world, and this reflection includes a pattern in which God displays some specific aspects of his character in the things that he has made.
This pattern of reflecting God’s character extends to both creation and providence.