There are two questions which every person asks: “Where am I from?” and “Where am I going?” We know our past and we want to know our future.
The book of Revelation ultimately answers the second question about the future and the end of the world. The first question is answered by the first two chapters of Genesis. So as we begin a new year today, let’s look at the foundation, the beginning of our history.
Unfortunately, this chapter is often viewed as a myth or legend but if God’s Word is truth as it claims to be, do we have a right to separate this chapter from the rest? Neither Jesus nor any of the Apostles viewed the story of creation as a legend but as fact because they viewed the Bible as a whole and completely true. This is our starting point for truth.
And it answers the crucial questions which have influence on our life and our future. “Where am I from? Why am I here?”
GOD: THE ONLY CREATOR FROM NOTHING
„In the beginning God created...” What does that mean? Scientists tell us that the universe always existed – that at least there was some kind of concentrated energy before the big bang. But if we take the Scripture seriously, there was a definite beginning point and before that point nothing existed except for God himself. Isaiah 44:24 says this: “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,”
The lie of the enemy is that there was no creator. There is no need for God for the existence of the world and life. We need only a lot of time and some luck and then there will be life on earth. This is not the teaching of the Scripture – we are not a product of time and chance. This is simply a theory which has never been proven even once. Science is not able to create even the most basic forms of life. And so the enemy feeds people with his lies that God doesn’t exist and we are simply a product of chance.
The Bible says the exact opposite. Before the creation of the universe, before our world, before time and before life, God existed. In the first verse of the Bible, the Hebrew word “bara” appears which means “to create from nothing.” Only God can create from nothing! What did God create from nothing? Time! “In the beginning.” For the first time there was a beginning – the clocks started ticking. Going further, God created the “heavens.” This refers to space – the vast open space that we cannot find the end of with our most powerful telescopes.
And thirdly he created “the earth.” This is not merely the earth on which we stand but the basic elements of the universe with which he created everything else in the universe.
Time – space – physical elements. Do you see that these are the basic building blocks of all we know? It’s like a child who wants to build a house from blocks. These three things God created from which he formed everything we know within the six days of creation.
But there is something else that God created from nothing in Genesis chapter one. Read verse 20: “Let the waters swarm with LIVING creatures…” Do you see what God created? LIFE. This is something that no man can create from nothing – life. Certainly we can create life from seeds but no one can take basic elements like nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and so on – add energy and cause life to suddenly appear. Only God!
GOD: LORD OVER TIME
One of the most common arguments against creation according to Genesis 1 is the belief that the world simply couldn’t be created in six days. Friends, this is true! Our world with all the life in it cannot be created in six days – it is simply impossible. According to all we know about the world around us it takes time for things to grow – a tree doesn’t grow overnight.
But let me read Luke 18:27 "What is impossible with men is possible with God." We serve the God who does the impossible! We serve a God who stopped the sun during the time of the Judges. He parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross from Egypt. He caused a worldwide flood to sweep over the earth. He raised the dead. He walked on water. And he caused faith to spring up in your heart. Those are impossible things according to science – but not too hard for the Lord.
2 Peter 3:8 reminds us what God is like: “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” What we say must take a thousand or a million years, God can accomplish in ONE DAY! Why do we limit God? Simply because we don’t believe in the Word of God – we believe in what we can see and hear in this world. Friends, the Scripture will never fail you! It is the truth!
Another very important aspect of this is what the very words of Genesis say: verse 5 “and there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Verse 8 “and there was evening and there was morning, a second day.” And on and on it goes. The Scripture uses a word YOM which means literally „time period.” It can mean a longer time period like a month, a year, or a thousand years in some cases. But throughout the Bible, whenever there is a number associated with this word, it means 24 hour day without exception. There is only one possibility for what this chapter is describing if you read it literally – six 24 hour days. Again, do we trust the Word of God or do we trust the word of man?
GOD: THE PERFECT PLANNER
So we must learn to trust in God’s Word in faith. But there is something else we learn about God from this foundational beginning of the Bible – he’s a planner! Again, it’s a lie to say that everything in our world occurred by chance. It was at one time believed that the smaller you look at life, the simpler. But as scientists study the most basic building blocks of life – the DNA, they discover that the smaller, the more complex. How could something like that evolve? No one knows because it can’t evolve.
When we read Genesis 1 we see that every step in creation was planned and prepared for the existence of life on earth. Imagine building a house. First you need a plot of land and then you must have the foundation dug. And so also with the creation of the world. God created the heaven and the earth. The foundation is laid. And now the house with many rooms must be built on that foundation
Look with me at the seventh verse: “And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.” He made the atmosphere by separating water from water. Two empty rooms in the house have been prepared – the sky and the ocean. These two rooms are ready for life to move in when God gives the word.
God did a similar thing on the third day (vs. 9). He separated the water from water horizontally and created the dry land. In this way he created a third empty room in the house for life.
But no one builds a house in order for it to be empty. And so on the fifth and sixth day God filled these so called rooms with life. On the fifth day he filled the sea with fish. And then he filled the atmosphere with birds. On the sixth day he filled the dry and with land animals and then finally – the last creation of God – the greatest was human life. (next week we’ll look especially at the creation of man) “And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters… and the earth.” (22, 28)
Yes, God had a clear plan – he didn’t just create the world and say: „Go fend for yourself!” He’s interested in seeing his plan completed. Jeremiah (1:5) we find this: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Job 23:14 “For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.” Do you realize that God knew you before you were born? Many things are appointed for your life – he has many things on his mind not just in the big picture of creation but in the individuals he creates – you and I. God promises to complete what he has planned for you. Yes – we can resist and reject God’s plan but that will result in tragedy every time. Turn to the Lord again. Submit to his leading. Submit to his perfect plan for YOU.
GOD’S PERFECT PLAN FOR CREATION
What is that plan? From Psalms 19:2 we find this: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament reveal his handiwork.” Why were you created? Why do you exist on planet earth? You are here in order to live for HIS GLORY. This is the ultimate plan for your life and mine. Imagine Rembrandt painting one of his masterpieces – a jaw dropping and amazing work of art and he gives it to the prince as a present. If he doesn’t hang this painting on the wall of the palace it would be a terrible shame. Did Rembrandt spend so much time thinking, planning, and creating this masterpiece in order to be placed in a closet?
We are that masterpiece created by God to be hanging in his palace. The book of Isaiah (43:7) writes “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” This is God’s goal – his plan for your life. Does that which you do, say, and think glorify the Lord God? Or maybe that which you do glorifies your own name? If we are like this painting of Rembrandt, do we try to paint our own name as the painter – do we take the credit for our own life when we are created to bring praise and glory and honor to our creator?
Unfortunately we often resist God’s plan for our lives. We have a free will, to go our own way and that way is not good. We lie in the darkness like a masterpiece that should be hanging in the palace giving the prince glory. We erase the name of God with our words and our actions. Very often this happens because one thinks of himself as worthless – as an accident – as a product of evolution – as an unwanted nobody. This too is a lie not found in God’s Word.
Psalm 139,14-15 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” Again, can you trust what God’s Word says or will you trust the word of man?
The fact is that God doesn’t create garbage – he creates masterpieces. Remember what it said in Genesis 1 “And God saw that it was good.” Six times God repeated that same statement about his creation. He didn’t create something terrible, ugly, painful, or dangerous. He didn’t create sickness or disease for everything was good.
Based on the theory of evolution, the world must be millions of years old and the basis of life progressing is that the strong survive over the weak, the diseased, the sick. Millions of years of sickness and death result in life. But God said that everything was good. It was ideal and perfect. There was no death, suffering or evil.
Where did that come from? Not from God, but from sinful man and the sin was NOT GOOD. A few years ago when I lived in Poland we were at a local museum which had a beautiful sculpture of Mary holding Jesus. For years it stood on a street corner before the city decided to clean it up and restore it. Up to that point no one thought it was anything special but as they began to work on it the restorers discovered that it had been repainted 27 times and under those many layers was discovered a priceless masterpiece from the middle ages. The paint had covered its beauty.
We have done the very same thing. We cover ourselves with our own beauty – our good deeds and works and try to make ourselves valuable when at the very beginning God created us for himself as a priceless work of art. We need to repent of our sins and our false opinions of ourselves as garbage, as not good enough, as self-made creations.
The fact is that we have been not only made, but we have been bought with the priceless blood of Jesus to bring him glory. No matter what any one of you has done in the past, the cross of Jesus will remove the guilt and the ugliness from you and restore you to his precious creation again. Will you allow yourself back in the master’s hands? Back in the creators hands who made you. What a wonderful way to start the new year! Start as a new creation in Christ. Bring the master glory!
