"In the beginning, God..."
What beautiful words to start the new year...in the beginning. These words appear at the start of the Old Testament, in the psalms, at the start of the book of John and the book of Hebrews. Beginnings permeate God's Word. He is the God of new beginnings. Praise God, He doesn't look at our past, but He meets us where we are...right now...at this very moment. Every moment for us is a new beginning with Him!
As we contemplate "the beginning", we must know that there was quite a bit of activity with God before "the beginning". See the book Diving into Deep Things of God by Phil and Patti Moore. Available paperback and kindle on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1719913390
In the commentary reading for today, this basic question was posed, "What would life be like without the SUN?" The obvious answer would be, "There would be nothing - no life at all."
Spiritually speaking, "What would life be like without the SON? Same obvious answer, "There would be nothing - no life at all (no eternal life).
Another question concerning the biblical account of creation - how long is a day? The length of each day can be explained with this. However long God took to do the creating, that's how long the day was. The Hebrew word for day is "yom" and has several definitions, such as "a division of time" or a "period of time". Time itself (as we know it) was not a factor until the end of Day 4 when God created the lights in the heavens, including the sun, moon, and stars to regulate seasons and times. And they are there to regulate the feast and festival days that He will establish with Moses later on.
On Day 1 light is created. Yet God did not create the sun until Day 4. What was the light that God created on Day 1? Well, consider the following.
Proverbs 8:22
"The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.
Continue reading in Proverbs to know that wisdom was the first of His works. Wisdom is the knowledge that there is good and there is evil. Wisdom (Jesus) was the craftsman at God's side doing the creating. Jesus, the light of the world, represents good and Satan, the prince of darkness, represnts evil. The light created on Day 1 is neither light waves nor photons. It is simply the knowledge that there is a difference between good and evil. One of the definitions for the Hebrew word light is enlightenment.
John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
We are walking in wisdom if we have Jesus, the light of the world, the light of life.
Revelation 21:23
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Jesus was the light at the beginning and He will be the light at the end.
On Day 2, God created an expanse between the waters above and the waters below. Here are a couple of other versions that may give us a better understanding of this concept.
Genesis 1:6-7
God said, "I command a dome to separate the water above it from the water below it." And that's what happened. God made the dome CEV
Genesis 1:6-7
Then God said, "Let there be a canopy between bodies of water, separating bodies of water from bodies of water!" So God made a canopy that separated the water beneath the canopy from the water above it. And that is what happened:
ISV
God said, "I command a dome to separate the water above it from the water below it." And that's what happened. God made the dome CEV
Genesis 1:6-7
Then God said, "Let there be a canopy between bodies of water, separating bodies of water from bodies of water!" So God made a canopy that separated the water beneath the canopy from the water above it. And that is what happened:
ISV
The dome and the canopy are the same thing. There is only water, no land yet. Until the land came up out of the water.
On Day 3 the dry ground appeared and then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation..."
On Day 3 the dry ground appeared and then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation..."
God prepared the land, (earth) the dry ground, and "seeded" it. The land was ready to bring forth the vegetation from the dormant seeds when God created the sun on the fourth day. The seeds were not germinated until the fourth day. More information on this can be found in Genesis 2. Notice in Gen. 2:8, God planted a garden in Eden. He planted the full vegetation in the garden. In the rest of the world the seeds were there ready to come forth.
On Day 4 God created the lights (light waves and photons) in the expanse for several reasons; to give light and to regulate seasons and times and to warm the earth in preparation for the germination of the seeds.
On Day 5 God created animals in the water and in the air. He made everything according to its "kind". There were no "cross-over" species. And He told them to increase in number.
On Day 6 He created the animals that lived on land. There is a distinction made among the land creatures. He created livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals. Some of these are for domestication and can be tamed, others are wild and not tamed. And of course He created man. The commentator in the Chronological Bible made this statement, "Both Adam and Eve share in the uniqueness of having received a divine inbreathing of God's Spirit with sets them apart from all other living creatures".
At the end of the first six days of creation, these words are written, "And there was evening and morning...". These words were not written at the end of the seventh day. God had completely finished creating. We are living the seventh day. These words are the reason that the Jewish day begins at sundown. Evening comes first.
On Day 7 Scripture says that God "rested". Our English definition of that word has little to do with the original Hebrew meaning. In our way of thinking, God worked for six days and then sat down on His throne amid fluffy clouds, breathed a sigh of relief and maybe took a little snooze. The Hebrew word for "rest" means " to accomplish, cease, consume, determine, end, finish, be complete, be accomplished, be ended, be at an end, be finished, be spent". In other words, God was done with creating! And then He stopped.
The earth was watered by streams, (or fog, dew, condensation) not rain. God planted full vegetation in the garden. The definition of the word garden is "an enclosed place a fenced in area".
The definition of marriage is given to us in Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
God made provisions in this admonition for all future generations. Jesus, Himself, quoted this verse in Matthew 19:3-6.
The definition of marriage is given to us in Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
God made provisions in this admonition for all future generations. Jesus, Himself, quoted this verse in Matthew 19:3-6.
Can we even begin to imagine how wonderful life was for Adam and Eve? In the garden, work consisted of just reaching out and picking food from the trees. There was no real work involved. They were given every green plant for food. No mention is made of eating meat. They were allowed to eat from any tree (including the tree of life) except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long as they ate of the tree of life, they had the potential to live forever. The Garden of Eden was a perfect place to live, until Satan (inhabiting the serpent) entered the picture.
When Satan tempted Eve to sin, he used doubt as his tool, "Did God really say...". He planted a seed of doubt. Which is exactly what he still does with each of us. He tries to place a bit of doubt in the mind of believers. Eve responded with an additional phrase, something that God did not say. Eve related to the serpent that God said they were not to even touch the tree. God only said that they should not eat from the tree and He told this to Adam, not Eve. God only spoke to Adam.
There is a very important word in Genesis 3:8. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day..."
The English word "cool" is the Hebrew word "rûach" and is the same word used in Genesis 1:2 for the Spirit of God. So Adam and Eve were enjoying a spiritual fellowship with God and that had to be refreshing for them as we would think of refreshment in the cool of a late evening summer day.
One of the consequences of Eve's disobedience was that her pains in childbearing would increase. Increase from what??? This implies that there were babies born to Adam and Eve before the fall. Scripture is silent about how long they lived in the garden or how many children were born before they were tempted by Satan.
Once Adam and Eve sinned against God and realized their sin, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. This of course didn't really cover the sin. So God sacrificed the first animals as a covering for their nakedness and a covering for their sins. And so with the killing of the animal the death process began. Adam and Eve for the first time witnessed death. This sacrifice is a foreshadowing of the sacrifices to follow, sacrifices that had to be done for the atonement for sin, a covering of the sin temporarily. Sacrifices had to be done repeatedly in order for sins to be "covered". It is the first shed blood of the innocent to cover the sin of the guilty. This foreshadowed Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Aren't we glad that Jesus became our permanent sacrifice, our atonement for sins forever!
Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Jesus didn't just cover our sins, but He cleansed us from a guilty conscience. Let us draw near to Him as He desires to draw near to us.
What a great way for any beginning!
What a great way for any beginning!
