In the Beginning God!

In the Beginning – GOD!
by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton

In the Beginning God... Genesis 1:1

My Memory Verse Book begins with this beginning of the first verse of the first book of the Bible. I love these four words. They are the reason for all that follows. Before the beginning of anything THERE was God.

I began my new Bible reading schedule with the idea that the Bible was written for me personally and that I would concentrate on this personal message. I took the books of the Bible in Biblical order and assigned a chapter of Isaiah and one or more Psalms to each book.

I began with the Gospel of Mark, which is a good overview of the Gospel.

Mark – 16 chapters
Isaiah chapter 41
Psalms chapters 96-99

Now I am moving on to Genesis – a good overview of where everything started.

Genesis – 50 chapters
Isaiah chapter 1
Psalms chapters 1-3

In the Beginning God
Everything starts with God. Now I am a Trekie and I cannot read the first verse of the Bible without hearing Carol Marcus saying “Can I cook or can I cook.” She was talking about the creation of a planet full of life from a lifeless chunk of rock. It only took her science hours to do this, which makes me laugh at the science that scoffs at the 6 days of creation.

Turns out that her world is unstable and unsustainable, but you don’t find that out until the next movie.

So, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Now I ask you, can God cook or can God cook? In just 6 days God created a stable, sustainable universe and the good old planet earth.

He doesn’t say a thing about His means but His methods are clear: First He considered and decided, then He announced His intention, then He made it happen.

Phase One: The decision
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2 This ain’t no spook hovering in the darkness. This is the Spirit of God. No one knows what He looks like. When Abraham talked to Him He looked like a man, but wasn’t. (Genesis 18:2) When Moses talked to Him He looked like a burning bush, but wasn’t (Exodus 3:2) The Spirit of God is that part of the Trinity that we have no picture for.

Do you have a picture of God in your head, something like a giant sitting on a giant throne? 

You most likely have a picture of Jesus in your head, either smiling with a lap full of children, or surrounded by a flock of sheep, or in agony hanging on the cross.

You may think of the Spirit as a dove or a tongue of fire but unlike the giant on the throne or Jesus on the cross there is no human form of the Spirit of God. 

Think of it this way:

God the Father decides.

God the Son announces the decision.

God the Spirit does all that was decided.

The Spirit of God came like a dove and rested on Jesus when He was baptized (Matthew 3:16) and like tongues of fire which rested on the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:3). And here He is hovering, in a holding pattern. He was thinking creation all the way through to the end. And then he began.

Phase Two: The announcement
And God said, “Let there be light” Genesis 1:3. Now the heavens and the earth were already there, and He doesn’t make the sun, the moon, and the stars until the fourth day, so what is this light? 

I imagine that the formless and empty earth was the raw materials with which He formed to universe. 

The whole Bible is nothing more or less than the revelation of God, by God to the people of earth. It begins with the relationship of Creator to creation. There was light before there was life. He clearly stated His intended relationship with creation before He ever formed a thing. He is the light and then He is the life.

The Bible was the written revelation of God, by God and to the people of earth. But God doesn't tell us everything, in fact there is a lot that God doesn't explain. God is infinite and I don’t like trying to stuff Him into a box. Just because He doesn’t tell us about the life He created on other planets doesn’t mean He didn’t create life on other planets. And if He did create life on other planets it is completely irrelevant to the revelation of God, by God to the people of earth. 

We know He created angels but they are not mentioned anywhere in the creation story. If there is life out there then their relationship with God is between them and God. Our relationship with God is informed by what He told us about Him here on earth and that is what the Bible contains.

Phase Three: He made it happen
And there was light. Genesis 1:3 Not to belabor the point but the sun and the moon and the stars aren’t there yet, so this light was not them. This light was the relationship between God, the Creator, and man, His creation. Not a relationship between God in the far off somewhere, but with God in the here and now. He created the relationship first, foremost and always. And that relationship is what the Bible is all about.

That’s what I gleaned from the first three verses of the Bible. What have you found in Genesis? Or whatever book you are currently reading?

Simple – Ain’t – Easy
But it is fascinating
Wendy