"In the beginning God…"
The Bible opens up with the four most powerful words ever written: "In the beginning God…" The Bible doesn't argue for God's existence, it simply assumes it. Far more than a purely abstract theological textbook, the Bible tells us the story of God and His work in and beyond the world. The first two chapters of the Bible relay the story of God's creation.
John Stott supplies another insight about this four-word opening of Genesis:
The first four words of the Bible are more than an introduction to the creation story or to the book of Genesis. They supply the key which opens our understanding to the Bible as a whole. They tell us that the religion of the Bible is a religion of the initiative of God. You can never take God by surprise. You can never anticipate Him. He always makes the first move. He is always there "in the beginning." Before man existed, God acted. Before man stirs himself to seek God, God sought man, in the Bible, we do not see man groping after God; we see God reaching after man. John Stott, Basic Christianity
Thus, we learn in the introductory words to the Bible that God is eternal and existed before His creation, and that He is the initiator of all that happens. As we continue in Genesis 1, we see how the Creator God of the universe brings everything into being and how He values His work.
We learned yesterday that God reveals Himself to us through the Bible, through Jesus Christ and the created order. Over the next couple of weeks, we will look at different facets of God's revelation to us. Today, we want to look more in depth at Genesis 1 (Mark up the passage as you read it. What do you learn about God?):
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day. And God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day. And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the third day. And God said, "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day. And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day. And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:2-25
In the story of creation, we see the power of God in action. For instance, He simply speaks the universe into existence. We see His intelligence, beauty, and order as He creates and fills each day of creation. We not only marvel at the creation, we marvel at the God who created it. The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1)! Then finally we get to see God's evaluation of all He has made: "It is good." God delights in what He has made.
Everything about God's creation was "good." There was no conflict, no destruction, no disease or pollution. The Hebrew word shalom (usually translated as "peace") captures God's intent for creation. Shalom means wholeness, unity, integration, and harmony. Everything was the way God intended it to be. It is very important we begin the story here. Often the Church begins with the bad news about us and the world: we are fallen, sinful, and in need of rescue. While true, the Bible doesn't start there. It starts instead with a loving, incredibly powerful and majestic Creator who personally designs a universe to reflect His glory.
It was into this world that humanity was born. This was the world God made for us.