In the Beginning, Good

 A monkey escaped from the zoo. All over town, they searched. Finally, they spotted the monkey coming out of the library. He had two books his arm. One was the Bible. The other was Darwin's "Origin of the Species." Somebody asked, "What are you doing?" He answered, "I'm trying to find out whether I'm my Brother's Keeper or my Keeper's Brother." Many do look to Genesis for an answer to the question, "How did creation happen?" It's the wrong question. The question Genesis answers is who did it. And the answer is crystal clear. God did it. Let's look at Ge 1:1-5. 1aIn the beginning... Of what? Time. 1bIn the beginning, God. Even at the beginning of time, God was already there. Someday, time will end. The end of days. Even after time ends, God will still be there. As He says in Rev 1:8, I'm the alpha & the omega. The beginning & the end. 1cIn the beginning, God. In Hebrew, God is Elohim (אֱלֹהִ֑ים), plural of singular El (אֵ֥ל). Even at the start of time, God was plural. And 1dIn the beginning, our plural God created (3rd person masculine singular verb) the heavens & the earth. Our plural God singularly created heaven & earth! At time's start, God was already plural & also One. Our singular, plural God created the heavens & the earth. He created. In the Bible, only God creates-the universe, animate life, & mankind. The Hebrew word is rare, otherwise. But-how? Look what He started with. 2aNow the earth-the land-was formless & empty. Formless. Like desert wilderness. And empty. Desolate. Void. At the beginning all is formless void. The point? Don't miss it. Creation was from nothing. No big bang. No evolution from anything. God created everything from nothing. Look at Ro 4:17, Paul says God... calls things that are not as though they are. God spoke nothingness into being. He still does. God called heaven & earth into being. On earth, 2bdarkness was over the surface of the deep. No land. Just darkness & deep, deep waters. 2cGod's Spirit was hovering over the waters. Hovering. Brooding. As a mother hen broods over her chicks. Already, we see God's love at work. Even in the darkness. Even in our dark times, God is working for our good. 3aAnd God said, "Let there be light." With a word, God calls light into existence. But how? He hasn't yet created a sun, moon, or stars. Our clue? 3bThere was light. And 1 Jn 1:5 says God is light. Wherever God is, there is light. The Bible begins with God as the source of all light. It'll end the same way. In Re 22:5, we 5 won't need lamp light or sunlight, for the Lord God will give us light. From the beginning of the Creation, God shows us. Any other god of light or darkness? No god at all. Dismissed. There is only one God. 4aGod saw that the light was good. For the 1st time, God now says it's good. Why? Each time God creates something people will need, He calls it good. Why? Love. Already, God shows His love for the crown & goal of His Creation: us. And God isn't done. 4bHe separated the light from the darkness. Why? Human need. 5aGod called the light "day." We need a daily time for work & recreation. 5bThe darkness he called "night." We also need a daily time for sleep. 5cAnd there was evening, & there was morning-the 1st day. In 7 days, God creates us & all we'd need to sustain us. Mineral, vegetable, & animate life. All we'd need. All for us. The Bible is crystal clear: God did it. Ever since, humanity has wondered: how'd He do it? Was it a literal 7 days as the Bible suggests? Or did life arise "spontaneously," even if God guided it? Many do think life & all it needs developed in some spontaneous process. The facts? Sterilize anything. Hermetically seal it. How long till something living emerges? Countless experiments (ever since Louis Pasteur) have shown that without life to start the process, no life will emerge. If sterilization is perfect, no live will emerge. Science long ago disproved the theory that life spontaneously developed. It'd take greater faith to believe life arose spontaneously than to believe God created life & all it needs to have developed. Many also think that over millennia, higher order living beings all evolved from a lower order species. We were 1st a tadpole that crawled onto land, monkeys much later, & finally mankind. The problem? Science. Cross breed roses for 1,000 years. You'll get different colors & sizes of roses. But all & only roses. No animals, reptiles, or insects. Breed cats for 1,000 years & you'll only get cat varieties. Not even a new species of cat. DNA is fixed. Everything produces according to its kind. Just as Scripture says. In past ages, there are no intermediate species. None. Finally, many think the universe gradually ordered itself to support humanity. By chance, things gradually fell together to support life on this planet. That's the theory. Science proves the opposite. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics says everything naturally degenerates into a more disordered state. Want proof? (Besides looking in a mirror? LOL) Disassemble a computer into its smallest parts. Repeatedly drop them from the 3rd floor of a large hotel lobby. How many times will take before the computer falls together into working order? How long till broken parts reassemble? Now, how many galaxies dropped before one fell into place with everything to support life on one of their planets? How many more millennia till life fell together on that planet? It'll never happen! A plot of weeds will never evolve into a golf course. But a golf course will become a plot of weeds without a lot of work to prevent it. What's the point to all this? The Bible says God did it. And the science says natural means could never have created life. God alone did it all. (More proof? If God "evolved us" from lower order species, how could any lower order species die out before death entered Creation due to human sin? It couldn't happen that way!) God called all Creation into being for us. He alone did it. For us. Even in the 1st Testament, it's clear God loves us. He planned for us from before the beginning of time. Each one of us. You & I are loved in a way that's beyond imagination. A God who so meticulously planned all we'd need to exist will never miss anything we need to become who He created us to be. A God who created everything for us. And it was good. He'll never leave us or forsake us. He's Immanu El. God with us. That's the God who created us. On the 7th day, God rested. Then, humanity sinned. In only one way could God have shown us any more clearly how much He loves us. He foresaw the only way we could be saved. The one way we could be family with Him forever, which is what He's always wanted. God not only saw the way, He loved us so much He stopped resting & did it. Until the end of Scripture, God isn't shown resting again. Only after He brings all to fruition, in Rev 21:1-5 will He sit again on the throne. When Adam & Eve sinned, God stopped resting. He's been at work ever since, preparing creation for our salvation. God didn't rest when Jesus came into this world & was rejected. Jesus never rested from trying to save us. Certainly not on the cross, where He paid sin's ultimate price for us. All our sins. And He won't rest until He brings it all to fruition at the end of time. Until then, Jesus portrays God as the prodigal son's father in Lk 15:20. He's pacing, scanning the horizon for the 1st sign of return for each prodigal son & daughter. And as He spots each one returning to Him, He races to throw His arms around us. Only now are we ready to ask the key question that we each face. How can we respond to a love like that? A love that never gives up on us. Never. A love that trusts us with another chance. Always. A love that gives up His own life to save ours. How can we respond? All He asks us to do is to love Him-by loving others that He loves. By reaching the others He's searching the horizon for, helping them to return Home. Will we love Him as He wants to be loved? Will we? In the Beginning, Good - Genesis 1:1-5 Page 1 of 1