- God’s final act part 2
- God’s final act part 1
- Working together part 2
- Working together part 1
- Hope fulfilled part 2
- Hope fulfilled part 1
- Hope promised
- Kings and Prophets
- The Law of Moses part 2
- The Law of Moses part 1
- God’s message to the world
- The Fallout
- God’s response to our choice
- The Fall
- Paradise
- Creation: The Big Picture
by, Isam Itson III
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”, Genesis 1:1. God himself is the main subject of the entire Bible. In the story of Creation on the first page of the Bible, the Hebrew word we translate as God is Elohim in Hebrew. Elohim is a title. It means The Highest or Greatest Power. Elohim can be understood as the God above all gods, the King above all kings, the Ruler above all rulers, or the Judge above all Judges.
The God of the Bible is the supreme, Almighty God. He is the supreme ruler who represents the highest authority. All other authority figures submit to him. This is the God who created the heavens and the earth.
Creation in this context speaks to the fact that it is the supreme almighty God who brought all life and the order necessary to sustain life into existence.
This story of creation begins with the Spirit of God hovering or brooding over the lifeless, and impossibly deep, chaoticsea. The Spirit of God is spoken of as distinct from God and yet identified as God or equated with God. The identification of God as spirit reveals that God is immaterial or invisible, yet real. The word we translate as spirit is the same Hebrew word translated as breath, or wind. Invisible and able to impact the visible world. So the Spirit of God reveals that God is personal and active. The Spirit of God is personally working in the act of bringing life and order into existence.
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,.”, Genesis 1:3. God performs his work of creation by the power and authority of his word. God speaks. God’s word is full of his Spirit. God’s word expresses God’s intention or will for life. Day after day throughout the rest of this story God sets the boundaries, provides the resources, and establishes the order necessary in the heavens and on earth, for life to thrive. Then, God fills the waters, the sky, and the land with living creatures. All by simply speaking. God’s word is an expression of God’s supreme grace, power, and wisdom.
God’s supreme grace, because God freely acted before anyone had done anything to deserve his gift of life and provision under his righteous and sovereign care. God’s supreme power because God brought order to life on earth simply by speaking. And God’s supreme wisdom because God accounted for everything necessary for the living creatures to thrive under his righteous care and covering.
Then God expressed his desire to create human beings. To at least one other person who shared his supreme position and manner of life God said, “Letus make man in our image.”, Genesis 1:26. The word we translate image means likeness or representation. God created humanity, male and female, to represent him. Distinct and united. One, yet more than one. Singular and plural. Just like God, God’s Spirit, and God’s word.
“And God blessed them and said to them, ‘be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and rule over the living creatures.’ ”, Genesis 1:28. By blessing them God is revealing his existence and his purpose to the humans. He wants them to know that he is with them and he wants them to rule together as his royal representatives over the earth and the living creatures.
God wants the humans to care for the living creatures in the same way that he cares for the humans. God wants them to reproduce and raise more humans to follow his lead across the face of the earth. And God empowers them to do so by providing them and the other living creatures with the food they all need to survive. By blessing the humans, God has revealed his supreme almighty presence, his loving grace, and his considerate and practical wisdom for their lives under his righteous and just rule.
Finally, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all the work he had done in creation.”, Genesis 2:3. God blessed the seventh day. God declared his purpose for the seventh day to the humans. God made it holy. Making it holy means God set it apart for his use or designated it to serve him. He did this because on the seventh day he rested. God literally stopped the work of bringing the earth into life sustaining order, filling it with living creatures, and placing them under the authority of the humans that he created to rule as embodied representatives of his supreme, and divine authority.
In other words, having set everything in order, and accounting for all of the needs of the subjects under his supreme and divine covering, God settled in to rule over the heavens and the earth with humans as his subordinate co-rulers. And God said all of this was “very good.” Life on earth and God’s relationship with the humans at that particular moment, was exactly how God had envisioned it in the beginning.
In response
1. Read or listen to Genesis 1:1-2:3.
2. How can you express God’s creative grace and wisdom in relationship to the people and circumstances you encounter in your own life?