In The Begining, God...

V 1 The verb "create" is used only to talk about what God does. No one else ever "creates" something out of nothing. People can't, we only make something out of pre-existing things.　

"Nothing is here by chance; everything must be considered carefully, deliberately, and precisely." Gerhar von Rad

I have read the Hebrew text is arranged in multiples of 7’s - 7 days, 7 execution reports, ‘and it was so,’ 7 evaluation reports, ‘and God saw that it was good,’ the words "God" and "earth" are used 35 and 21 times each, the 7th day is described in 35 words. The preamble v 1 is 7 words, and v 2 contains14 words, and the entire text ch 1- ch 2-3 is 469 [7x 67] words. This way of thinking suggests to me a very long time, but short of 70 x 7, Jesus' reference to infinity plus 1.

God's first actions, are sovereign creating acts, depicted as the initial edicts of the Great King by which he founds and orders the kingdom.
God as artisan and author carefully crafts the world for the benefit of its future inhabitants - scholars have noted there are 2 panel of 3 days. Broadly days 1-3 are of separation and division followed by days 4-6 filling these created spaces with mobile living things.
God creates order out of chaos. The popular Middle Eastern notion was that water was uncontrollable chaos. In light of flash floods, floods, droughts and changing river beds it probably was every ones worst nightmare, In Genesis, water is simply separated by divine direction, there is no resistance or evil to overcome in the entire story.

God creates by his word. The reccurring image begins in 1 :3-4: "And God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. And God saw that the light was good." Each of God's other creative acts in Genesis 1 is also framed by a similar pattern, typically of three basic elements: God's word ("and God said, 'Let there be X, or "and God said, 'Let x do y), followed by an execution report ("and it was so") and an evaluation report ("and God saw that it was good" - not that it was perfect, more on this idea later).

God creating by speech evokes the image of God as an "author" with absolute power over his creative "work." Like a powerful king whose word is law, God brings new creatures into being simply by decreeing their existence. The creatures are willingly subject to the word of their creator-king; God. God calls upon already existing creatures to bring about new creations. For example, God invites, "Let the earth bring forth," and, we are told, "the earth brought forth." The earth has a role in bringing forth the creation. This story of the world creating itself has been repeated over the millennia as ever new creatures come into being, mediated by existing creatures, from volcanoes to coal to islands.

This is the proof for "all things are your servants" Ps 119:91 The underlying picture is of God as cosmic ruler of a harmonious, well-functioning realm.