The Beginning: The Astonishing Truth About God and the Creation

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

Everything you need to learn and know about God can be learned by taking a look at the beginning when God created.

Introduction

When we take a look at the beginning of creation, we like to try to figure out how it all began.  Aside from whether or not there was a big bang in the beginning, there is a powerful lesson about God that is taught to us and I wish to share with all of you. So, I hope that you’ll take a moment to join me for this week’s lesson, as we are going to be taking a look at “The Beginning”.  This week’s Sunday School commentary will cover scripture from Genesis 1:1-13. 

In the Beginning

Genesis 1:1 opens with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  This verse, while very well known, is one that is often glossed over.  Yet, these are the words that were given to Moses to begin the Pentateuch, and now make up the 66 books of the protestant Bible.

This opening verse immediately establishes who the sovereign ruler is over all things.  God is the Creator.  Scripture does not tell us that He had any brothers, sisters, mothers, or fathers to help Him.  

God, alone, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created all things as the Son was with the Father in the beginning (John 1:1).  The Holy Spirit is also seen hovering and moving throughout the Creation event (Gen. 1:2).

As Paul told the Colossian church, God is the creator of all things seen and unseen (Col. 1:16).  Paul even added, “whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,” to include the spiritual realm as well.  Personally, I’d also like to add that if there are other dimensions and universes, all of what we can think of, God is the creator of all that is known and unknown.

What is the Beginning?

Something that we must understand about “the beginning” is that the beginning speaks of the start of physical time.  One may think to themselves, God came before the beginning.  While I understand this sentiment, this sentiment must also be corrected.

You see, God is eternal.  God, you must understand, does not have a beginning nor does He have an end.  God was not born.  God will not die.  As the Lord told Moses, He simply is “I AM”. God is forever.

God is not bound to His creation. He is like a painter who paints on a canvas. The painter paints the picture and is able to step back and examine his creation. The painter, even if he paints himself in the picture, is still not a part of the picture. Again, the painter is outside of the picture, standing as the creator of that picture.

So, God, as the Creator, is not bound to the laws and principles of this physical creation. In fact, God is the one who ordained the laws and the principles of His creation. God knows every single detail of His creation.

The Creation

As we begin to take a look at the Creation, there are some important things to point out about it.  

First and foremost, nowhere in scripture are we given a time frame for how long the Creation took.  The Creation is separated by “days”.  “Days”, in this case, is an unnmered amount of time. I genuinely believe it is better for one to think of the “days of creation” as “acts of the creation” or as “works of the creation”.

Many try to use Peter’s time frame to set a number for how long it took for God to create but using Peter’s teaching would be a misuse of his teaching.  In 2 Peter 3:8, when Peter suggested that a day in God’s eyes is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, he was teaching a lesson about patience.  Peter used what he would have considered a large number to explain that God, being outside of time, does not see time as we do, so we should faithfully wait on Him.

Second thing to point out: scripture does not go over the minute details of the Creation event. For exmaple, we aren’t told whether there was a bang or not in the beginning.  As much as I enjoy the science of astronomy, theories like the Big Bang Theory are simply not important when it comes to creation event. I don’t believe God shared those details because whether we know how the creation begins or not won’t help us enter in God’s kingdom. So, we will leave all the hypotheses and theories for scientist to discuss.

The heavens and the earth

Let’s also note that Genesis 1:1-2 states that the creation of the heavens and the earth happened before day one of the Creation event.  

The “heavens” is not a reference to the dwelling place of God.  God’s dwelling place is a spiritual domain that is not bound to creation.  In fact, all of that which occupies the heavenly domain, like the angels for example, is not mentioned in the Creation event.

We know that the angels were made by God, but they were made “before” the physical creation.  In Ezekiel 28:14, the Lord said of Satan, “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you…”  (Cherub: high-ranking angel.)  I reference this scripture to show that God established, or made, the heavenly beings.

In Job 38:7, the Lord asked Job where he was when the morning stars (the angelic chorus) sang together, and all the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy when He fastened the foundation of creation.  So, though it’s not mentioned in Genesis 1:1, there is scripture that makes known events that took place “before” the Creation event.

So, the “heavens” spoken of in Genesis 1:1 refers to the cosmos– space, the universe.  “The earth” speaks of the rock you and I dwell on.  However, Genesis 1:2 tells us that the earth was without form and was void.  A protoplanetary disk is what science would say the Earth was.

Even more, Genesis 1:2 tells us that darkness was on the face of the deep.  At this point in the Creation process, there was no light.  The cosmos was darkened, filled with gas.  Though the cosmos was darkened, the foundation of Creation had been laid; everything was in place for the Creation to develop.

Day one – “Let there be light”

Day one of the Creation event is covered in Genesis 1:3-5.  We are told in Genesis 1:3 that God said, “‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”  These are the first words of the Lord recorded in scripture.  These words reiterate the sovereignty of God as He can command, and His command is done.

We aren’t told where this light came from, nor are we told the source of the light, but one can safely assume that these were the first sparks of light in the cosmos.  What exactly were those lights? I’ll leave that answer to the scientist to theorize, as that is not my field of study.  

We are told in Genesis 1:4-5 that God saw the light and that it was good, and divided the light from the darkness.  He then called the light Day, and the darkness Night.  This is the first time in scripture where we see God “seeing” – perceiving and understanding – and then making a judgment.

Why is light considered good?  Well, light is a revealer of what is there – the truth.  Is this to say that good created good and evil?  Absolutley not.  God put the light and darkness in their places.  By the end of His creation, Genesis 1:31 tells us that God saw that everything was very good.

Day two – “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters”

Day two is covered in Genesis 1:6-8.  Scripture tells us that God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”  Again, we see the sovereignty of God as He commands, and it is done.  Who is carrying out these commands?  God is– His Spirit was moving.

One may wonder the meaning of dividing waters from the waters.  To understand, we must first know what the firmament is.  A firmament is defined as the vault or arch of the sky– the heavens.  

Heavens, in this sense, is not a reference to the cosmos nor the heavenly kingdom.  The heavens in this sense refer to the air – the atmosphere.

So, by the time of the second act of the Creation, the Earth had not only come together, but it had formed its atmosphere.  Science breaks down Earth’s atmosphere, or its firmament, into five different layers, with you and me living in the bottom layer.  The firmament is one that is still in place today, as provides air for us to breathe and even protects us from space. In the atmosphere are those white fluffy clouds that some of you may enjoy watching.

Something we should in mind is that water has three forms:  liquid, solid (ice), and gas (vapor).  Liquid water flows all over the Earth, with ice frozen at its poles.  When we look to the skies and see the clouds in the sky, we are seeing water vapor, or water in its gaseous form.

The atmosphere is something we take for granted.  The water cycle, the division of water, is also something we take for granted.  Yet, the atmosphere and the water cycle are responsible for life.  With mankind’s search for life on other planets, many have begun to see the miracle that life is.  The miracle of life, once again, shows God’s sovereignty.

Day three – The earth takes shape

Day three is covered in Genesis 1:9-13.  In the third act of the Creation, God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.”

This scripture indicates that prior to the third act of Creation, the Earth was a water world– this means it was once completely covered by water with no dry land in sight.  Eventually, the Earth began to act like a sponge, soaking up the water. As the water levels dropped, dry land began to appear.  The waters gathered together, forming what God called Seas.  

From a science standpoint, research has “proven” that ancient Earth was once a water world.  Research has also indicated that there were once supercontinents on Earth rather than multiple continents like today.  Moses, without such research, revealed this information to man through the giving of prophecy from the Lord.

Now, the Lord wasn’t done just yet with the third act of Creation.  God then said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth.”  Again, God commanded, and it was done.

Many make the Creation out to be a random coincidence, but how can that be?  Scripture makes it clear that the Creation was planned with intent.  The formation of Earth shows that the Earth was formed to be a beautiful garden.

There is a process where gardeners will soak their seeds in water so that the germination process is sped up.  One could view the Earth as a big seed that the Lord soaked in water so that it could germinate and produce all over.  Everywhere you look on Earth, there is plant life, even in Antarctica!  In fact, before Antarctica ended up where it is today, it was once very lush.

If there is anything I’d like for you to take away from today’s lesson, it’s this:  God created the world to be a gift to mankind.  When He placed man on earth, God did not put man in a barren world!  Even today, though we don’t care much for our world, the Earth is still a work of beauty.  

As a gardener, I believe we ought to do a better job of taking care of this world that God has given to us.  After all, tending to the world is also mankind’s calling; God put Adam and Eve in the garden to tend to it.  I do believe that how we keep this world is an indicator of where we, mankind, are spiritually.

With that in mind, where do you think we are spiritually when you take into consideration how we care for the Earth?  Something to think about, isn’t it?