Lately, I have been hearing that a lot of Christians are not reading the word. It is important that we do, because it is God's greatest physical gift to us that has survived through the ages. It is His word! If we sit down and read it just to say that we have read, we will miss so much! In fact, in one Bible verse alone there is so much knowledge and wisdom! I love to use Genesis 1:1 as an example for this for two reasons: 1) everyone seems to know it but never understands deeper than the phrase, and 2) because it is at the head of the Bible and shows how deep the rest of the book goes.
If you have ever sat down and read the Bible just for the sake of saying that you have read it, you are not doing anything special. Sit down and read it with a purpose! To learn, to gain wisdom and understanding, to hear from God! Sit down with a purpose and listen to what God says. I will use Genesis 1:1 and only Genesis 1:1 to reveal many things about God.
Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth." In the origional Hebrew form, it was, "Bereshith bara Elohim eth hashshamayim veeth haareths" (God in the beginning created the Heavens and the Earth).
Now, bereshith in Hebrew means "at the head," which is another way of saying "in the beginning." The word "bara" in the Hebrew language is a very that can only be described by God's using. Only God can bara. The rest of the phrase after Elohim means "the Heavens and the Earth" which is a Hebrew phrase to mean "everything." Now, looking at it this way, "Elohim (one of God's names) created everything at the beginning."
The name Elohim in Hebrew is hard to translate and can mean many things many ways, but it is agreed upon all that it is the title of God and gives Him importance. In the traditional Jewish view, Elohim is the name of God as the creator and judge of everything. Looking at it this way, God is the creator, and the judge, and was first recognized in the Bible as such. He exercised His role as creator by creating.
Now I well step away from History and move more into modern translations of the Bible. We must see that creating something and making something are two different things. To create something means to make something exist that had no previous existence. When you create something, you bring something new into existence that never existed before. Making something is to form something new out of already existing objects. Let's use a cake for instance. If we make a cake, we are using ingredients, no matter what. If God creates a cake, it appears in the over out of no where. Objects do not get up and form the cake for Him. It simply appears as He intended it to. That is the difference between creating and making.
Now, looking at it with this understanding, God created everything. He literally created everything from nothing. This shows His omnipotence and His sovereign authority. He is omnipotent because it takes power to create, and He created everything in a display of His omnipotence. This also shows His sovereign authority because nothing was made without Him. Everything was made by Him, so He is the rightful ruler over all. If something is made by you, you are rightful to rule over it. God created us and everything around us, so He has the right to rule over us.
This also shows God's omniscience and omnipresence. He is smart enough to create everything on His own. He knows every mystery of the universe and every secret of life that we do not. He made the universe exist, gave the universe its laws to live by, and made everything perfectly able to exist with one another. He is brilliant! God has to be omnipresent, because He cannot create where He is not at. This shows us that He was at all places even at the beginning when He formed everything perfectly with His limitless power.
Let us look at the first five words alone. "In the beginning God created." So, He created time. He was the one who dictated when time was allowed to flow by the mark of His creation. Aside from this, He also was outside of time. The Bible verse does not go, "in the beginning God was born and created all things." No. God was already present before time was even relevant. He was already omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent before there was time. He was already perfectly God before time started. He was already Elohim (creator and judge) before anything existed.
Wait, how can He be creator and judge before anything was created? Simple, God has attributes that we do not understand yet. Angels do not praise Him for His ability to redeem. His redemption does not save them, only humanity. So what do they praise Him for? His holiness, His righteousness, and so much more. It would not be surprising that God would have attributes that we do not understand yet because we have not seen them in action in time. It is possible for God to have attributes that He did not yet use but then used. He was the creator before He created; and He was the judge before we were judged. Genesis 1;1 does not argue against God's attributes being limited to time or what we can conceive.
In fact, Genesis 1:1 proves that God is holy! He was not touched by time. Everything that has ever existed, aside from God, is effected by time. Holy means to be set apart or wholly different. God is different from anything that has ever existed. Genesis 1:1 shows us that He is the creator and we are the creation. He is outside of time and we are inside of it. He is the giver and we are the taker. Nothing is like Him. He is holy.
I would love to continue, but I feel that this is enough. Everyone knows Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth," but how many of you got all of that from that single verse? We should be sitting down to read and understand. Genesis 1:1 alone is packed with so much. It shows us that God is, was, and always will be creator and judge, it shows us that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, it shows us why he is sovereign over all, it shows us that He is not limited to our understanding or time, it shows us that He existed before time ever began, and that He in fact began time. All of this and more is plain to see in Genesis 1:1 alone. If I were to add other verses to compliment this one, imagine how much more could be revealed to us? This is all possible because God wants us to learn and understand. We must take the Bible seriously and take reading it with paramount reverence.
When you pick up the Bible to read it next, are you going to read to read the Bible, or are you going to sit down and read it with a purpose?
-D
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