Sunday: The God of Creation
Read Psalm 100:1-3. What is the human response to the God of Creation, and why?
In Genesis chapter 1, the first message of the Creation account is “God.” We already hear it in the translation: “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1). In the first line (Genesis 1:1), the word “God” is placed in the middle of the verse and is underlined by the strongest accent in the Hebrew liturgical traditional chanting in order to emphasize the importance of God. The Creation text begins, then, with an emphasis on God, the author of Creation.
Image © Francesa Miller at Goodsalt.com
The book of Genesis begins, in fact, with two different presentations of God. The first Creation account (Genesis 1:1-2:4) presents God as infinitely far from humans, the transcendent God, Elohim, whose name speaks about the supremacy of God. The name Elohim denotes preeminence and strength, and the use of the plural form of the word Elohim expresses the idea of majesty and transcendence.
The second Creation account (Genesis 2:4-25) presents God as up close and personal, the immanent God YHWH, whose name many believe denotes closeness and relationship. The Creation text as a whole is, then, an implicit appeal to worship God; first, to be aware of God’s infinite grandeur and power, and at the same time to acknowledge our dependence on Him because He created us “and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3). This is why many of the psalms often associate worship with Creation (Psalm 95:1-6; Psalm 139:13-14, [compare with Revelation 14:7]).
This twofold view of a God who is both majestic and powerful, and who is also close, loving, and in a relationship with us, contains an important point about how we should approach God in worship. Awe and reverence go along with joy and the assurance of God’s proximity, forgiveness, and love (see Psalm 2:11). Even the sequence of the two presentations of God is meaningful: the experience of God’s proximity and the intimacy of His presence follows the experience of God’s distance. Only when we have realized that God is great shall we be able to appreciate His grace and enjoy, in trembling, His wonderful and loving presence in our lives.
| Think about the vast power of God, who upholds the cosmos, and yet can be so near to each of us. Why is this amazing truth so amazing? |
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I mentioned yesterday that the big question, "Why?" is one that faces both Christians and Atheists when it comes or origins. Ultimately our argument for a God "Creation" has to rest not on scientific data but on whether we who call ourselves part of "God's Mob" act like the God we talk about or are hypocritically arguing for God's existence while taking licence with our own interpretation of his love.
One only needs to read church history to see why people looked for other explanations than a God-centred one. If you want some tough reading, take a look at some of the Huxley-Wilberforce debates in the nineteenth century. Sometimes we are hoodwinked into thinking that the truth of what we are saying is divorced from the way we say it and the way we act towards others.
If the God of love created the universe, and those who follow him deny the principle of that love then we have lost the argument from the outset.
What is your 'mind's eye' picture of God? If you look at the picture illustrating today's lesson, do you automatically associate the 'being' in that picture as Jesus or as God?
It is actually very difficult for many if not most people to picture a God who is infinitely and self-sustainingly powerful, yet also infinitely intimate with His creation. Hence God is often seen as "twofold" rather than both aspects being one-in-the-same. The closest way I can think to illustrate this one-in-the-sameness is via a children's story called "My dad can do anything" by Stephen Krensky. In this story, the child experiences their dad as very present and at the same time able to do absolutely anything. If you are interested, you can see the story via this link.
Jesus said to Phillip, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father" (John 14:9). If this is so, then the illustration in today's lesson is as equally applicable to God as to Jesus. Does that match with your picture of God? I find that it matched with David's picture.
What a privilege to be able to talk directly to the Creator Himself, Jesus. What a blessing to have the response from Him, by the Consolator, which is part of the One, which is also Three. My finite mind can barely understand the love of God for me, and how ungreatful I am when I deny to do His will for my life!
To me, the fact that the original Hebrew word used in Genesis for "God" that indicates plurality is a proof that The Creator God was not alone in creation. Jesus was there and so was The Holy Spirit to assist in this awesome event.
Why did God create this world?
Rev 4:11 KJV
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Great verse. Yet, it seems that our particular world has an extra amazing purpose for being brought into existence – that of dealing with the sin problem in the universe. Not that we are the pawns in a cosmic chess game, but we are an integral part of God’s great act of love towards the entire universe. This also makes me feel that God’s grace and mercy towards us here on earth has always been, is, and will continue to be far more than we can comprehend. What a GREAT GOD we have.
The question at the end of the lesson makes a great point – ‘Why is this amazing truth of the Creator who upholds the Cosmos and is also approachable by humans in a direct and personal form so amazing'?
Is it so amazing because we realize that we were designed to recognize Him with our mind which can observe Him in the order of His Creation’s design? Is it because He gave us a heart which He touches by His spirit; a heart able to recognize the Father’s spiritual Truth and His Love expressed in His Will for us to live by faith?
I think that knowing the Creator God as a heavenly Father makes all the difference in a person's life. Scientists use experiments to establish an observable experience, the believer uses living faith directly, personally, and intimately to experience the revealed Word of God by faith as He reveals Himself to us.
Science does not oppose faith, nor does faith oppose science; they co-exist on two separate dimensions of the intelligent design’s experience – one material, the other spiritual; though the spiritual understanding reveals the higher form of man's existence.
The scientist is invited to believe as is the child who does not yet have a question about his/her existence, cannot yet understand or reason. Faith is the gateway to spiritual understanding and applicable to a child's mind and all who seek after Truths.
It's beautiful to compare God's initial creation of planet Earth with the New Heaven and New Earth. The first time God made lights to divide day and night and to give light upon the earth day and night (Gen 1:14-19). But the New Earth will be different. We won't need a sun anymore. We won't need a moon anymore. Why?
The glory of the God of Creation will be our direct Source of energy - no in-between of the sun - and the Lamb will be our Lamp (Rev 22:3-5). We will see all of creation in the light of Christ. I'm picturing that everything will be a bazillion times more dazzling than what we currently know! The sun we know is nothing compared to Christ and the light radiating from Him after providing the way for our purification from sin (Hebrews 1:3). How everything reflects sunlight now is a pattern of how everything will reflect God's light (Matthew 13:43; Isaiah 60:1-3). The colors there must be! Now all of life receives warmth and light and fuel for food from a created light, but then we will bask in the "True Light" (John 1:9)!
I wonder why God didn't set it up this way from the beginning? I'm guessing that it's because God knew we would sin and wouldn't be able to handle that pure light, so there was a need to use created light until sanctification is complete in each of us and we can handle existing in the pure Light of God.
Esther, I wonder if Rev 22:3-5 only applies to the New Jerusalem and not to the whole of the New Earth?
Thanks, that’s interesting, Shirley. Hmmm, I don’t know. Because it says there will be no more night, I’m supposing it’s the whole New Earth and not just the new Jerusalem. But I guess it could be “the city that never sleeps” and the rest of the universe operate differently. Whatever it is, these are all clues, to me, that we will be able to have even more intimacy with God than Adam and Eve had in the perfect garden of Eden.
This study is a great explanation of the different offices of God's emanating powerful Spirit. One is personal, the other not.
Genesis 1:2, Psalms 33:6, Isaiah 55:11, John 14:20, John 17:23, Acts 2:17-18, Romans 1:18-20,
I wish the author had not referred to Genesis 2:4-25 as "The second Creation account," because it makes it appear as though the Bible tells two conflicting stories. That is too bad.
The over-arching account of God ordering and filling this planet with life is found in Genesis 1:1-31 capped off with the seventh day which the Lord sanctified and blessed. Gen 2:1-3. (Chapter divisions in the Bible are arbitrary and sometimes make no sense at all. They are not inspired.)
As is often done in literature both past and present, the creation account is revisited in Genesis 2:4-25 to fill it out with more detail. The way I see it, God prepared the planet for life and filled it. Then He made Adam and created a special home for him, namely a "garden eastward in Eden." Then he asked Adam to name the animals He had created, and Adam named them according to their characteristics. In the process he noticed that all the animals came in pairs - but there was no one like him. And this is exactly what God intended. He wanted Adam to feel his need for a companion so he could properly appreciate the partner He would create for Him. And so God created Eve out of a rib taken from Adam to signify that she was to stand by his side as an equal - not to rule over him like a head or to be ruled by him as the feet. Adam was delighted with the woman God created for him, and the story continues ..
In other words, the Gen 2:1-3 account should be regarded as fitting within the Gen. 1:1-31 account - focusing on more detail in the creation of man. No, I don't know how Adam could name "all cattle and birds of the air and animals of the field" in one day, but it is not impossible when we consider that all that cat family (cats, lions, tigers, leopards, etc) came from one created pair. All the canine family (wolf, coyote, dingo, fox, poodle, St. Bernard, etc.) came from one created pair. All the cattle family (cows, goats, sheep, gazelles, antelopes etc.) came from just one pair. He might have named up to 40 birds, but probably fewer. (I think he probably named all the animals living in the garden.) It's not an impossible task for a super-intelligent human. And then Eve must have been created just before the Sabbath began at sunset. What a day!