Genesis 1:1 - Creation
Thomas S. Myers
Genesis 1:1 – Creation
You will never fully understand anything in the Bible unless you understand Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. NASV
Did you know that Genesis 1:1 is the key to the rest of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 is like the key to your front door.
There are 4 vital truths I want us to learn about Genesis 1:1.
FIRST -- GOD IS OPENLY PRESENTED.
The Bible does not secretly or privately or meritoriously or stealthily present God. The Bible openly and publicly and unashamedly presents God. The fact of God existence is not argued or explained here. God is just presented.
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God...
No arguing about it, no explanation of it, just
1 In the beginning God...
Do you know what word occurs more times than any other word in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)? The word Yawah, Jehovah.
Did the Bible writers every try to prove the existence of God. Someone will say, "You Christians just accept God by faith." How do you answer a question like that?
It's simple: Do you know what the atheist does? The atheist just accepts by faith that there is no God. The atheist has never proven there is no God. You see, all men are believers. I chose to believe there is a God. The atheist chooses not to believe there is no God.
God is openly presented. Do you know why some people do not believe in God? It is not because they are not smart enough to believe in God.
Let me tell you why most people do not believe there is a God.
The prime reason is found Psalm 14:1...
The reason many people do not believe in God is because they have a lifestyle that contradicts God.
Turn to Psalm 14:1
Psalm 14:1
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God... NASV
The word "FOOL" is the Hebrew word nabal. It does not refer to someone is not intelligent. The word "FOOL" refers to someone who is morally corrupt. Look at the rest of Psalm 14.
Now look again at Psalm 14:1.
"The fool has said in his heart.... there is no God...
It does not say the fool has no intelligence. You see the person who does not believe in God does not have an intelligence problem, it's a heart problem. The problem is not in their head, the problem is in their heart. The problem is not that the atheist can not believe there is a God. The problem is that their heart will not allow them to believe.
Look at Romans 1:28
Romans 1:28
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. nasv
You see the person who says there is no God, says it because of their moral life.
Now there are others who say there is no God because if they were to say there is a God, they would lose their job, or maybe their would lose their social standing or their status.
You can not get rid of the idea of God. Trying to get rid of God is like the man who bought a boomerang. He literally killed himself trying to throw it away. It just kept on coming back and back. You can not get rid of the idea of God.
God is openly presented in the Bible.
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God... NASV
SECOND -- GOD IS THE GOD OF ALL CREATION.
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created... NASV
Look at the word "CREATED." The Hebrew word bara means to create something out of nothing.
Only God can create something out of nothing.
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell God that they were done with Him.
The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so
why don't you just go on and get lost."
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this, let's
say we have a man making contest."
To which the scientist replied, "OK, great!"
But God added, "Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam."
The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and the scientist bent down and grabbed
himself a handful of dirt.
God just looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go make your own dirt!"
God spoke and it came into existence.
Jeremiah 32:17
17 ‘Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee. NASV
Psalm 8:3
3 When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained. NASV
When we look at God's creation how amazed we ought to be.
ILLUSTRATION
Psalm 139:14
14 I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well. NASV
I' have been read a powerful and fascinating book entitled Fearfully & Wonderfully Made: A Surgeon Looks at the Human and Spiritual Body, by Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey, by missionary surgeon Dr. Paul Brand.
Included are the following lines about DNA. The secret that make us unique is a strand of DNA. Once the egg and sperm share their inheritance, the DNA chemical ladder splits down the center of every gene much as the teeth of a zipper pull apart. DNA re-forms itself each time the cell divides. Along the way cells specialize, but each carries the entire instruction book of one hundred thousand genes. DNA is estimated to contain instructions that, if written out, would fill a thousand six-hundred-page books. A nerve cell may operate according to instructions from volume four and a kidney cell from volume twenty-five, but both carry the whole code. It provides each cell's sealed credential of membership in the body. Every cell possesses a genetic code so complete that the entire body could be reassembled from information in any one of the body's cells, which forms the basis for speculation about cloning. He then adds in a footnote: The DNA is so narrow and compacted that all the genes in my body's cells would fit into an ice cube; yet if the DNA were unwound and joined together end to end, the strand could stretch from the earth to the sun and back more than four hundred times. Fearfully & Wonderfully Made: A Surgeon Looks at the Human and Spiritual Body, by Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey, (Zondervan, 1980) pp.
Some birds are able to navigate by the stars. Even if hatched and raised in a windowless building, if shown an artificial sky, they immediately are able to orient themselves to the proper place to which to migrate. The archerfish is able to fire drops of water with amazing force and accuracy, knocking insects out of the air. The bombardier beetle separately produces two different chemicals, which, when released and combined, explode in the face of an enemy. Yet the explosion never occurs prematurely and never harms the beetle itself.
At any given time, there are an average of 1,800 storms in operation in the world. The energy needed to generate those storms amounts to the incredible figure of 1,300,000,000 horsepower. By comparison, a large earth-moving machine has 420 horsepower and requires a hundred gallons of fuel a day to operate. Just one of those storms, producing a rain of four inches over an area of ten thousand square miles, would require energy equivalent to the burning of 640,000,000 tons of coal to evaporate enough water for such a rain. And to cool those vapors and collect them in clouds would take another 800,000,000 horsepower of refrigeration working night and day for a hundred days.
Agricultural studies have determined that the average farmer in Minnesota gets 407,510 gallons of rainwater per acre per year, free of charge, of course. The state of Missouri has some 70,000 square miles and averages 38 inches of rain a year. That amount of water is equal to a lake 250 miles long, 60 miles wide, and 22 feet deep.
The U. S. Natural Museum has determined that there are at least 10 million species of insects, including some 2,500 varieties of ants.
There are about 5 billion birds in the United States, among which some species are able to fly 500 miles non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico.
The earth is 25,000 miles in circumference, weighs 6 septillion, 588 sextillion tons, and hangs unsupported in space. It spins at 1,000 miles per hour with absolute precision and careens through space around the sun at the speed of 1,000 miles per minute in an orbit 580 million miles long.
The human heart is about the size of its owner's fist. An adult heart weighs less than half a pound, yet can do enough work in twelve hours to lift 65 tons one inch off the ground.
A water molecule is composed of only three atoms. But if all the molecules in one drop of water were the size of a grain of sand, they could make a road one foot thick and a half mile wide that would stretch from Los Angeles to New York. Amazingly, however, the atom itself is largely space, its actual matter taking up only one trillionth of its volume.
If you see a watch, you then conclude there must be a watch maker.
Did you know that scientist do not make laws of nature. Scientists do not create laws of nature, they just discover them. Scientists are no more able to create laws of nature then Columbus was able to create the new world.
FIRST -- GOD IS OPENLY PRESENTED.
SECOND -- GOD IS THE CREATOR OF ALL CREATION.
THIRD -- GOD HAS A PURPOSE FOR CREATION.
Look at the last part of Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created...
the heavens and the earth. NASV
Why did God create "the heavens and the earth?"
Let me give you at least 3 reasons why God created the heavens and the earth.
1ST -- HE CREATED IT FOR HIS PLEASURE.
Revelation 4:11
11 “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.” NASV
2ND -- HE CREATED ALL THINGS TO RECEIVE PRAISE.
Romans 11:36
36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. NASV
Psalm 150:6
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! NASV
Everything that God created was created to bring Glory to God.
Therefore the trees lift up their might limbs and say, "Praise God."
The beautiful flowers south out and say, "Praise God."
The mighty roar of the oceans says, "Praise God."
And you and I were made to praise God. And until you praise Him you will never understand what life is all about.
3RD -- GOD CREATED ALL THIS FOR YOU TO ENJOY.
Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." NASV
FOURTH -- GOD IS A PERSONAL GOD.
A. HE THE REVEALED GOD.
You can know God by His revelation.
Romans 1:19-20
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. NASV
Romans 1:19-20 tells us that those who say they are atheist are not honest. Because everybody has an innate inner awareness of God.
ROM 1:19-20
An atheist will not be able to say on judgment day, "I had an intelutical difficulty in believing in God." You see no one is born an atheist. You have to be taught to be an atheist.
An anthropologist was carrying out studies in the Fiji Islands and entered into a conversation with a tribal chief. An atheist, he expressed disappointment that the tribe had been influenced by the foreign missionaries to become Christians. "It's a pity you've allowed yourself to be taken in by these missionaries," the professor exclaimed. "No one in our world believes the Bible anymore. We all know it is foolishness." The old chief paused for a few moments to consider the man's words, then
answered: "Foolish? Look at the rock over there - on that rock we used to smash the heads of our enemies. See the furnace next to it - in that furnace we roasted the bodies of our enemies. If not for those missionaries sharing the Word of God with us, you would never leave this place alive. You should thank the Lord for the Word of God; otherwise, you would be our meal tonight!"
If you believe Genesis 1:1, then there are 2 conclusions that are forced upon us.
First -- You have a moral responsibility to God.
You have obligation to God since God created you.
Ecclesiastes 12:1
1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth...”
Isaiah 45:9
9 “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—... nasv
Second -- God has an obligation to us.
When God created us, He obligated Himself to us. When we bring children into the world, aren't we obligated to those children. There's a responsibility when you bring children into the world. And there was a responsibility that was incumbent upon God when He created us.
1 Peter 4:19
19 ...a faithful Creator...
God did not just make this world and wind it up and fling it into outer space.
Isaiah 43:1-3
1 But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! 2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.
3 “For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior... NASV
What is God saying? God is saying, "I made you, I'm going to care for you... And He will.
Also He had His son Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins.
In the town hall in Copenhagen stands the world's most complicated clock. It took forty years to build at a cost of more than a million dollars. That clock has ten faces, fifteen thousand parts, and is accurate to two-fifths of a second every three hundred years. The clock computes the time of day, the days of the week, the months and years, and the movements of the planets for twenty-five hundred years. Some parts of that clock will not
move until twenty-five centuries have passed. What is intriguing about that clock is that it is not accurate. It loses two-fifths of a second every three hundred years. Like all clocks, that timepiece in Copenhagen must be regulated by a more precise clock, the universe itself. That mighty astronomical clock with its billions of moving parts, from atoms to stars, rolls on century after century with movements so reliable that all time on earth can be measured against it.