CHAPTER I

IN THE BEGINNING

“IN the beginning God.” With these words the Bible story opens; they are the most important in the whole book. They centre on the truth that God is, and that He was before all things. Later He is said to be “from everlasting to everlasting.” Much has been written concerning Him; long words such as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient have been used to describe His attributes; they simply mean that He is all-powerful, is everywhere present, and all-seeing. If the words fail to convey a full realisation of what they mean, it is only what is to be expected. God is so great that man cannot really understand Him, yet each of the three words is necessarily true. Another expression concerning Him is “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things”; which means that all things come from Him, are controlled by Him, and are to be for Him.

From His home in heaven God spoke the words, and sent forth the power, His Spirit, by which all things were made, for “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” No one knows when that took place; even if it were millions of years ago, it was “in the beginning” that this first act recorded in the Bible took place.

To-day these words convey more than they did in the past, for our ideas of the universe are far greater than those of our forefathers. In the heavens above so many stars are to be seen that they cannot be counted, but their number is not to be compared with the immense numbers that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Yet, however numerous, and how ever vast, they may be (and our earth is quite a pigmy compared with some of them) God created them,

Let there be Light

A long gap separates the first sentence of the story from what follows. The earth was waste and void, and all was dark. Of the time that elapsed from the beginning to the end of the darkness the story says nothing. It really commences with what has been called the vision of the creative week. The word “vision” is well chosen. No man saw the events take place, but probably some “holy man of God” was given a vision of them in retrospect so that he could record with unfailing accuracy the first chapter of the story.

“And God said, Let there be light.” These were wonderful words with a wonderful result, “and there was light.” The Bible is not concerned with ways and means. As the days of the vision succeeded one another the various works were revealed to the seer. He saw the separation of the waters on the earth from those above by means of a firmament, or an expanse-the atmosphere. Then the great oceans and the smaller seas were formed, and the dry land appeared, so that grass, herbs, and trees might grow. Next the sun and moon appeared and, as the story says, “He made the stars also.” Next the waters brought forth great sea monsters and fishes, and birds flew in the heavens. Then the earth brought forth cattle, beasts, and creeping things. Finally God made man in His own image, the highest form of created life on the earth.

Reviewing the record it will be seen that there is an order in the events, a parallelism that may be presented thus:-

First Three Days.

1. Light

2. The firmament, or air, divides the waters.

3. Dry land and vegeta­tion.

Second Three Days.

4. Sun, moon, and stars.

5. Life appears in the waters and in the air.

6. Land animals, and man.

The Bible uses two words in this part of its story which, though they may seem alike, are really differ­ent from each other; they are, “created” and “made.” In the account in Genesis, Creation is affirmed of three things; (a) the heavens and the earth, (b) the beginning of life, and (c) man. These were entirely new beginnings; of the other things it is said that they were made, or that they were brought forth. It will be seen that the three things of which creation is affirmed represent three stages. They are inani­mate things (the heavens and the earth), living things (the animal kingdom), and human beings, capable of thought, reason, veneration, and worship. All who read these words belong to the last of these, the crown of earthly creation. It is for them to prove that they are worthy of being part of the last recorded creative act of God.

God rested

Looking at the completed programme, it is said, “God saw every thing that He had made, and be­hold, it was very good.” It was good in plan, and good in nature. All that was necessary for the support of living creatures (who were living souls, for in telling the story the same word is used for soul and creature) was prepared before they appeared, and all else was made before man appeared upon the scene. When he was created he was given dominion over them all, for all had been made to minister to his requirements.

Two statements are made later in the Bible story which explain why God created the earth. It was not a mere whim on His part; He had a purpose in view. Isaiah states that God had formed the earth to be inhabited, and John, in the last book of the Bible, says that all things were created for God’s pleasure. On these two sayings all the story depends, and until the earth is inhabited by a people who will give God pleasure, and nothing is opposed to His will, the story will not be finished.

The vision of the creative week concludes with the statement that God rested on the seventh day. He thereby instituted a principle that all can appre­ciate, the necessity of rest after toil, when quiet contemplation may follow active work.