How It All Began

Getting to know many of you often involves some sort of “where are you from” “where does your story start” conversation.

3,400 years ago, that’s 1400ish BC, a man named Moses is writing the stories of his people, the “children of Israel.” Where they come from.

He began writing a large work, called The Torah (the teaching, guidance, law) which is dividing into five “books”. The first one is the story of where it all began.

So he started at “the beginning”, the Bereshit. When the scriptures got translated into Greek “in the beginning” is Genesis which is what stuck in our experience.

Please turn to

Genesis 1

Let’s read this chunk- chapter 1-2:3, then discuss. Settle in, we’ll be in these two chapters for a few good weeks.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The earth was unshaped. Empty and unorganized. Some say chaotic.

The first word translated “deep” there is interesting- there’s two words here often translated “water” but the ESV translators chose to call one “deep” and the other “waters.”

The first one is…

תְּהוֹם tehom

Tehom which usually refers to large destructive bodies of water. Danger, chaos. The deep.

Then the second reference to the waters is …

מַ֫יִם mayim

…mayim, which is often used in the way we understand water- powerful yes but life giving, a “vital resource”.

What changed? Why the shift from chaos and danger to live giving in two sentences?

(2) …the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

1. God’s presence changes chaos into order.

a. You got chaos? You need God.

b. Not a plan, a scheme, an “answer”. Those come from God. So go to Him.

c. The biggest mess can have the biggest potential when God’s Spirit is over it.

d. The mess can be a masterpiece. The chaos can be order.

e. The story of creation carries this theme: watch how God does it. From “formless and void” to…

f. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

g. 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

h. 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

i. 11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

j. 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

k. 20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

l. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

m. 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

n. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

o. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

p. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

q. 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

r. 2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

s. Now there’s a lot of places people like to go with this story.

i. 24 hour days verses spans of time.

ii. When did it happen? 4004 BC?

iii. Hot take: I don’t care. I like to focus on what is clear in the Bible, and leave the rest.

iv. Moses was not thinking about Evolution or stuff like that. What was he thinking about?

1. God’s presence brings chaos into order.

2. And…

2. God made us because He wants to love us and share His world with us.

a. God’s Desire:

i. At that time people believed the chaos was controlled by many gods through war, sex, and other activities. So that they would have slaves or food. Some of the stories depict the gods creating by accident even.

ii. Here God is introducing Himself as one God who simply speaks 11 times. And blesses.

iii. It was all Him and His design. He could have made any possible world.

iv. And He made this one. With you and me in it.

v. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17 ESV

1. You are not an accident.

2. This world and all its potential was made and God called it “very good”.

3. That has helped me. Does it help you? I pray it does.

4. Does it change how you see others in this world? I pray it does.

vi. God didn’t create and leave. He didn’t do it by accident.

vii. What I see is a powerful, intentional God, making a wonderful “very good” universe, and sharing it with us. “fill it” “have dominion over it” “I have given you…”

viii. See Him sharing what He made with us?

1. There’s enough here for everyone. Food and space.

2. The problem: how we distribute and share it. That’s on us. We’ll get into that in a few weeks.

3. In the meantime…

ix. God’s desire is to be in relationship with humanity, forming a partnership with us to manage the world He made and gave to us.

b. Is that a good thing? Yes it is. In fact…

3. Everything God does is good.

a. Literally. He is the definition of what good is. We get it from Him.

b. We’re going to be unpacking a lot of details from this story over the next several weeks but here’s what I want you to hear today.

You exist because it pleases God that you do.

Everything God does is good.

His desire is to love you and share this world with you.

Bring Him your mess. Your chaos. Surrender to Him and let Him change you.

He bothered to create this world with you in it, and when we fail and make a mess over and over, He offers His presence again in His son Jesus who lived an ordered and good life, and died for our crimes. Our sin. Paying for it and offering, again, to fix it with the presence of his Spirit.

Just ask Him and He will save.