1. The Eternality of God. “In the beginning God created…” (Gen. 1:1). The very first words of the Bible point us back to the very beginning of creation but not the beginning of God. So while we see the creation of light, day, night, the heavens, the earth, vegetation, sea creatures, animals, and man in the opening chapter of Genesis, we are aware that the God who created all these things was Himself uncreated. While understood here, such revelation would become clearer as God continued to reveal Himself to man. In Exodus 3:14 God revealed Himself to Moses as, “I AM WHO I AM”, signifying His eternal self-existence – He is who He has always been. At a later point in time, perhaps while reflecting upon the very subject we’re considering, Moses would write these words in a song:
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” (Ps 90:2)
Long before “the beginning”… from everlasting (i.e. eternity past) God was God.
2. The Power of God. It’s hard to read Genesis 1 and not think about what it would have been like to watch God create all that He created. Such a display of intelligent and omnipotent power would make the imaginative speculation of the Big Bang Theory seem clumsy and silly at best. God simply said, “Let there be” and there was. Don’t miss that. There was nothing and then God simply spoke and fully formed things and creatures came into existence. The most magnificent artist that humanity could set forth as its representative would at least need something to work with or something to paint on to communicate his imagination and display his abilities. After all, without any pre-existing material what could he do? God, on the other hand, can create the Earth out of nothing and then hang the Earth on nothing, suspending it in space, having created something called gravity to be the means by which it’s suspended. If He could do that, what, in accordance with His will, lies beyond the scope of His power?
3. The Wisdom of God. Because of God’s infinite wisdom, everything that He created during the six days accounted for us in Genesis 1 are still in working order. Think about that. Despite the sinfulness of man and despite the passing of time, night and day still follow the pattern God established for them. The green herb is still good for food, feeding both man and beast, and the seeds that are brought forth from the fruit we eat today have their origin in the seed bearing cycle that God established on the third day of creation. Also, let us not forget, God’s creative acts were not a kind of logic-less magic. There is deep, seemingly incomprehensible science behind all that God brought forth. What kind of manifold wisdom could take dirt, form it into a man, and then, by a divine breath, bring forth a living being? A living being with a brain, circulatory system, unique fingerprints, eyes, lungs, fingernails, digestive system, and all that biology has scraped the surface of. With a divine breath, heart tissue was formed. With a divine breath, optic nerves connected to the brain. With a divine breath, man opened his eyes and all his parts were in complete working order. And not only with man, so it was with everything that God made. The sun did not need to be tweaked. There was no trial and error concerning the proper rotation of the earth around the sun to get the day and night to come and go accordingly. The wisdom of God brought forth creation in a complete working order that would declare the glory of God in both its existence and in its endurance.
4. The Goodness of God. Everything He made was good. The goodness of creation at its inception is a testimony to the goodness of the God who created it. As was mentioned concerning the wisdom of God, when He formed what He formed nothing was lacking. It was good. It was exactly how God would have it made. Then, as the capstone of the created order, God made man in His image as the pinnacle of creation to reflect His glory in a specific way to the created order. With moral, intellectual, and spiritual faculties not found in animals, man was given a unique role with unique responsibilities and unique privileges to both appreciate and reflect God’s goodness. Looking back, we know how the story goes. We know how man would transgress the God who was so good to him. The woman would heed the voice of the serpent, the man would heed the voice of the woman, and sin would enter the world. But let us not forget, God knew it then. He knew what man would do and He had determined before “the beginning” to send His Son to redeem a people unto the praise of His glorious grace (Eph. 1:4-6). What goodness. What kindness. Displayed in time but planned long before Genesis 1.
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