And God Said

And God Said

Genesis 1:1-2:2

God had spoken. The one who speaks expects to be heard. And God was heard. Speaking is the first active verb of the universe. The only verb that existed before creation was the “is-ness” of God. There can be no speech without a speaker.

Speaking is how God created the universe. This is the metaphor of creation rather than the metaphor of hands which we might expect of humans. God spoke into nothing and creation came into being. The nothing heard and obeyed the voice of God and came into being. The universe did not create itself. It was created by the word of God.

The Holy Trinity is seen in the creation. The Father willed creation, the Son spoke by the breath of the Spirit, without which no speech can happen. By speech, the matter of the universe was created and then formed according to its Author. In six days, God spoke creation into being and at the end of the day spoke its benediction. The sixth day was extra special in that this is the day that God created man and woman in His likeness. To this act of speech, God had to respond with the double benediction “Good, good”.

Who is this human race that God spoke into existence in His image? And just what is this image? We can see that He created us to speak and to listen. We were made to understand God and each other, to hear His voice and to respond with our own benedictions to God. This is also told us in the 8th Psalm in which it says that He made us a little less than Himself. When one sees the vastness of the universe which God spoke into existence, it should make us wonder with King David why God was so mindful of us. In terms of the universe seen scientifically, we are but a speck of dust among billions of specks of dust, which live on a planet that is a speck of dust in a solar system which is a speck of dust in a Galaxy which is but a speck of dust. We were made from dust, but we were created to soar upward, and not just remain dust.

Solomon, who assumes a persona of an earthbound philosopher to provoke our thought, looked at all of God’s work in creation and called it all dust (hevel). But it is not dust. God speaks otherwise. And when God speaks, we need to listen.

Because Adam and Eve misused the gifts of speech and hearing when they listened to Satan instead, the mouth of man which was made to rule the earth and speak its meaning by naming the animals as a steward of creation for the glory of God as well as using the mouth for the praise of the creator and ears to hear His voice, Adam and Eve instead listened to the creature, the serpent. When we think that Adam’s responsibility was to name and therefore assume authority over all other creatures, it was he who named the serpent. He then was to have authority over it. But instead, he turned the speech around and listened and spoke to the serpent as though the serpent was His master. He wished to worship the creation more than the Creator who is blessed for ever and ever (Romans 1). So man fell and would have to return to the dust. The curse then was that instead of soaring to God that man would return to the same nothing from which he came. This curse also came upon everything that man made with his hands. All of his cities and all the idols of his hands would also be eventually rendered into dust.

We who are but dust who for a short period under the sun rises to make what appears to be a beautiful flower which attracts admiration. But the heat and dryness of the day shows how short the glory of man is in the sands of eternity. But in spite of our sin, God did not render the punishment of dust immediately. The One who spoke creation into existence is said to maintain it through the Word as well (see Hebrews 1:1-3 and Colossians 1). He, for His purposes allows humankind its short glory in the sun, its fifteen minutes of fame in the eons of eternity.

We can only be thankful that the God who speaks is also the God who seeks. Man had turned his back upon God and turned his ears to hear from below. He no longer wanted to hear the voice of God. Instead, he shrank from God in fear and hid himself in the garden. Fallen man always shrinks away from the voice of God. He tries to flee from it. He tries to drown it out in the sound of creation. But just like the noisy apartment neighbor who turns up his loud music at 2 AM while you are trying to sleep, no amount of pillows or playing of your own noise can drown out the voice of God. Sooner or later, God will confront you with His voice. Even if you drown it out for your entire life, you will still hear His voice at the Last Judgment. The unbeliever wants someone to soothe and tickle his ear to silence this voice and will heap upon themselves teachers who will scratch the itch.