Text: Genesis 1:1-2
Theme: Creator of Heavens & Earth
Greetings: The Lord is good and His love endures forever!
Introduction: This passage, however, contains a number of words and phrases that are used rarely, if at all, in other parts of the Hebrew Bible, making them more difficult to define with the kind of precision that we might like. The first thing the Bible tells us is that God is a creator. Creation is solely an act of God. It is not an accident, a mistake, or the product of an inferior deity, but the self-expression of God.
The Heavens and the Earth are created by God, they remind us of many things in life. I would like to leave with you three Spiritual qualities:
- The existence of God
- The existence of the Grace of God
- The existence of the Hope of Second Advent
1. The Existence of God:
‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’. In these ten words, Moses states that God created all that exists. “In the beginning God created the heavens” (the universe) “and the earth” (this planet). The word “beginning” refers not to the absolute beginning of all things. Bereshith is not referring "from eternity" but "at the commencement of time."
God created everything out of Ex nihilo. Genesis 1:1 is not the beginning of God but the beginning of creation. God is the only One without a beginning. The Chandogya Upanishad 6:2:1 declares that before the world was manifested, there was only "existence" itself, one and unparalleled (sat eva ekam eva advitiyam).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1). In Genesis 1, we read, “and God said”, his powerful Word created (Genesis 1:6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29). Psalm 33:6 states, “By the word [logos) of the Lord the heavens were made” (Psalm 105:19, 107:20).
The four-dimensional space/time continuum (length, height, depth, and time) was created. This was literally the very beginning of time and the beginning of matter, energy, atoms, molecules, light, heat, stars, galaxies, planets, the sun and moon as well as the terrestrial globe we call the earth. It includes the entire cosmos created. The heavens and the earth have not existed from all eternity, but had a beginning (Deuteronomy 32:1; Psalm 148:13; Isaiah 2). So, the first statement is that God created all things, all matter, all stars, galaxies, the solar system, everything.
The Heavens and the Earth are one unit and has an inseparable existence. The ruah of God in Genesis 1:2 is “breath,” “wind,” and “spirit”. “The heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1; 2:1) are not two separate realms, but a Hebrew figure of speech meaning “the universe”in the same way that the English phrase “kith and kin” means “relatives.” The WORD and the creations are inseparable and have a longstanding relationship as many years as the creation exists. They are related to one another.
Tohu va-bohu: The fourteen Hebrew words in Genesis 1:2 talk on the Earth. “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2, for example, says that “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” Tohu has been translated as “chaos,” confusion,""emptiness,""nothingness,” and “watery waste,""formless," and""futile " was the state of things when God began to create. Bohu, refer to that which is empty or void (Genesis 1:2, Jeremiah 4:23).
Firmament: (Rakia), translated as “dome” in the NRSV, others as “firmament” “expanse,” and “vault” or space (NLT). It has the sense of something which is stretched out, spread out. The contextual meaning of "the expanse" was a land that separates waters from waters. It appears nine times in the passage (Genesis 1:6, 8, 14, 15, 17, and 20; three times in 1:7). Within the ancient Hebrew cosmology, only God allowed the waters from above and the waters from below into the bubble when needed for rain or rivers.
The Bible recognizes the existence of significant water vapour in the sky. The clouds of the upper atmosphere or simply the atmosphere itself. Others have speculated that a water "canopy"once existing in the upper atmosphere is no longer there. Without great temperature variations, there would be no significant winds, and the water-rain cycle could not form.
“The heaven was to the Hebrews a material substance (Exodus 24:10), a fixed vault established upon the waters that surrounded the circle of the earth (Proverbs 8:27), firm as a molten mirror (Job 37:18), and borne up by the highest hills, which are therefore called the pillars and foundations of the heaven (2 Samuel 22:8; Job 26:11); openings or closures are ascribed to it (Genesis 7:11; 28:17; Psalm 78:23). There are the same representations elsewhere.” (Knoble). The (šamayim) sky is dividing between the waters below and above it.The distinguishing between the waters also conveys a sense of the clear boundaries set in place in order to produce the ideal environment for life on earth.
2. The Existence of the Grace of God:
Isaiah 66:1 - Heaven is the throne of his glory and government; there he sits, infinitely exalted in the highest dignity and dominion, above all blessing and praise. Heaven, the highest heavens, are the place where God manifests his power and glory, and majesty (Psalm 19:1). The third heaven is the heaven of heavens, where Christ is in human nature, angels and saints are in spirit, Enoch and Elijah are in bodies. We can never understand much of anything until we understand that the Lord GOD is enthroned in heaven, and that the earth is under His command (Isaiah 66:2, Psalm 103:17-18, Psalm 36:5-6). The coming King, the coming Servant, the coming Redeemer, The One through Whom Yahweh will do His work, has been described in different ways in the main part of the book of Isaiah, but now the main focus is back again on Yahweh alone as at the beginning.
Psalm 24:1 - The earth is his footstool, on which he stands, over-ruling all the affairs of it according to his will. 'Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool' (Matthew 5:34-35). Matthew 6:9: ‘our father who art in heaven’.
Psalm 103:11 -Scripture says the Lord's love is as high as the heavens are above the earth. David gazed up at the heavens and marvelled at the Lord's creative power (Psalm 8:3–4; 19:1). He spent much of his life in the open outdoors, both as a shepherd boy, chased son in law and chased father. David understood the mind-boggling distance from earth to the stars and he knew God's love for His people is stretched even further(Psalm 103:12 immeasurable distance). John 3:16 tells us God's love was potent and no power on earth can destroy His love for us. Tribulation, distress, persecution, nakedness, danger, and sword cannot separate us from God's infinite love (Romans 8:35–39). His love endures forever (Psalm 136). They are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
The Rakia creates a porous space in the midst of chaos in which humans live in relationship with what they cannot control, what is uncontrollable. It would serve as a global greenhouse, maintaining an essentially uniform, pleasant temperature all over the world. The division of the waters can also be seen as a symbolic representation of the separation between heaven and earth. This theme of separation and distinction between the divine and the earthly emphasises the transcendence and holiness of God.
For most of us, the word chaos has negative connotations. We are constantly seeking ways, both individually as well as communally, to avoid, manage, contain, fight, or escape chaos. We tend to think of chaos (tohu va bohu) as the problem and solutions as to keeping it at bay, separating ourselves from it, and the imposition of order and structure. God helps us to cope up with it till we overcome it. We realize that chaos, confusion, and emptiness are part of our daily lives because of the decisions either we make or others. Much of our energy is spent setting up barriers or removing the chaos, bringing it in order to keep our loved ones and me safe.
3. The Existence of the Hope of Second Advent
Most significantly, the Bible ends where it begins—on earth. Humanity does not depart the earth to join God in heaven. Instead, God perfects his kingdom on earth and calls into being “the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:2).
‘For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.’ (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). “Behold, he is coming with the clouds” (Revelation 1:7). Jesus will come as the Son of Man with universal dominion (Daniel 7:13–14), though his subjects pierced him will wail (Zechariah12:10).
God dwells with us and will with humanity in the renewed creation. “See, the home of God is among mortals” (Revelation 21:3). Every day when we say the Lord’s Prayer, we call upon God to establish his Kingdom on the earth. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). During the time between Genesis 2 and Revelation 21, the earth is corrupted, broken, out of order, and filled with forces that work against God’s purposes.
The expectation of the second Coming of Christ is expressed in Matthew 5:18, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33 ‘until the heaven and the earth passes away’. The heaven torn apart (Mark 1:10).
Revelation 21:1 ‘New heaven the New Earth was created’. 2 Peter 3:10-13 ‘the Heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the Earth will be disclosed. We wait for the New Heavens and the New Earth’. Revelation 20:11 ‘the earth and the heaven fled away from his presence’. Matthew 24:29 ‘the Sun will be darkened, the Moon becomes dark, the stars will fall and the celestial beings are shaken’.
Conclusions:
The Heavens and the Earth are created by God, they remind us of many things in life. I would like to leave with you three Spiritual qualities:
- The existence of God
- The existence of the Grace of God
- The existence of the Hope of Second Advent
