Chapter 11
A Glance Through Creation
"In the Beginning God" Not dust, not
energy, and not “nothing”. “In the beginning God…” God created. If we look
around us in this world today, we see that if God did indeed create everything,
his creative power is truly awe-inspiring. Even in destruction something
beautiful is created. Look at the mountains, the valleys, the plains, the
rivers. Almost everything created by destruction but everything beautiful;
God's power revealed in His creation. The natural order of the universe creates
beauty.
What I find most amazing about this
whole creation process is the objects that God often decided to use in His
creative work. You look out at our universe and some of the most beautiful
things in existence are created from something that is actually destructive and
full of turmoil. We see a wonderful example of this type of creation through
the first chapter of Geneses, the very first story to be told in the Bible.
Through Genesis We get a picture of the character of this almighty God like
never before seen. A God so big He encompasses everything in the universe, and
by His word it was created, but yet, while He is the essence of the universe,
He stoops to take notice of a worthless, piece of rock, that we now call Earth.
Through this next chapter the character of God will begin to unfold and we will
catch a glimpse of a loving, caring, and intimate creator who is concerned with
the individual, and cares for your future. He knew you would fail, yet created
you anyway.
"In
the beginning God created the heaven and 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."[1]
What does this creation story tell us about the
dealings of God with creation? Does it reveal anything about a personal God or
is it a story of a deity who created and no longer cares? Let’s look in to what
the original writers of the story thought and how they chose to construct the
wording of this creation allegory. "Without form" comes from the
Hebrew word to'-hoo which means, "a desolate, worthless thing".
"Void" comes from the Hebrew word bo'-hoo which means "an
indistinguishable ruin". "Darkness" comes from the Hebrew word
"(kho-shek')" which figuratively means "misery, destruction,
death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness". "Deep" comes from the
Hebrew word "(teh-home')" which means "abyss (surging mass of
water). As you begin to construct these words together with their meaning you
began to see an incredibly shocking picture. At least it was shocking to me the
first time I looked at it.
God is about to do something with this world
that the universe has never before seen. Here is something so desolate and
empty that it is the closest thing the universe can come to calling wicked up
to that point. It is empty, desolate, worthless, dark, full of tumult and
destruction, utterly ugly and totally undistinguishable as a creation of God.
What was such a piece of junk doing in existence? I thought that prior to sin
everything in the universe was perfect. Apparently that was not the case. I
imagine that God had a left over peace of rock from creating other planets and
thought, “Ah, I might as well use it.” Think of all the pieces of rock flying
through space right now. Our tiny solar system is surrounded by trillions of
these rocks, what made God choose this one out of all the rest? Out of an empty
worthless peace of space debris "God created."
Doesn't God's presence make everything light up
with His glory? Why not this earth then? Why would this earth be shrouded in
darkness in a perfect universe? The writers of this creation story are making a
powerful object lesson. If creation did indeed happen this way, then in fact in
the very creation of earth, God was making an object lesson for the entire
universe. God is creating to reveal something about his character never before
known before. This is the case in every story written in the Bible, they are
object lessons that teach us just a little bit more about the character of God.
It is that way in nature as well. Everything in existence, since it is the
manifestation of the thought of God, teaches us just one more piece of the
character of God.
So what does it mean? The point is that Earth
was not a nice place. Earth was more like an asteroid flying through space with
no purpose or direction. Why would God, who is perfect, let a place such as
this empty, miserable planet exist? As we go deeper into this study we will see
that God had a plan, He had something to teach the universe and us, something
of His character never before seen by anything created.
God
starts this perfect creation with something imperfect. God takes this ruin and
does with it something so amazing the entire universe stops to take note. God
moves. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The
word "moved" comes from the Hebrew word "(raw-khaf')" which
means, "to brood; by implication to be relaxed: - flutter, move,
shake." It is only used 2 other time in the Bible, here is one Deu 32:11,
"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, (FLUTTERETH) over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did
lead him..." God moves over the earth. By implication the Spirit of God
fluttered over, enveloped this dark miserable world in an embrace of love and
He spoke the word, let there be light.
"In
the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was
God...And the Word was mad flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth."[2]
So this verse pretty much says, in the beginning
Jesus. This is the theme of the entire Bible, God’s love for us! And creation
started out with The Word. Do you remember what we studied about what Jesus
represents? Jesus is the dimension of God that relates to His creation. Jesus
is the 3 dimensional aspect of what it means to be a friend of God. Creation
started out with Jesus. Not only does creation start with Jesus, so does our
recreation. The Bible says,
"But
we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord."[3]
So
how are we changed? By beholding the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord
is friendship with God as was revealed to us through Jesus. It is that
developed relationship with the infinite.
"...The
knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." [4]
How could God love such a miserable planet
enough to make it a beautiful act of creation? Why did he bestow on it the
greatest gift ever received, the gift of life? I’ll answer my own question, it
is because of this: if He didn't His love would not be complete. The infinite
law of the universe drove God to create, out of nothing, something beautiful.
It is the same in my own heart. I am worthless, full of trouble, tumult,
wickedness, and destruction that I have become an indistinguishable mess. No
longer a perfect representation of the love and care of God. Yet God moved in
my life! He enveloped me, he wrapped me in the presence of His Spirit and love
was revealed. The suffering and death in this world make sense now. Not that
they were created by God, but that the law of love demanded that God create
something with the potential to go back to misery, destruction, death, and darkness
from which it was created. Only in this
way could love be poured out in such an infinite way that all of the universe,
the far distant planets, the advanced civilizations in other galaxies, and in our
own, could know that love drives existence and that God Himself is that love.
"The
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him
that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely."[5]
God desires us to live. He cries for us just as
He cried for Jerusalem saying,
"O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"[6]
The only thing we have to do is
come. Christ does the rest. We just have to,
"Look
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God."[7]
Once we look to Jesus and that friendship that
is available with God, and see Love as the only hope of change and the only way
to true happiness the spirit of God "Moves". Remember what the Spirit
represents? It is that living breathing friendship we have with God, once that
is established, once we have accepted love as part of our existence that love
envelopes our life and we find ourselves in an abiding relationship with Jesus.
Then Christ can start His creative work, but He can only start when we let Him
help us abide in Him. This abiding is the friendship of God. It is that living,
growing, and experiencing relationship with the creator. It is realizing that
we literally draw breath because God desires us to do so. We exist, because the
mind of God deliberately, consciously imagines our existence, and yet allows us
to choose for ourselves which path to take! Can you imagine allowing a thought
to have a free will? That is what God has done. He sustains us by His loving
thoughts for our existence, despite the fact that we don’t even believe He
exists.
Yet, God said, “Let there be light:
and there was light." [8] God does this in our
hearts to.
"For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ."[9]
The
very God who commanded light to shine out of darkness can and will shine the
light of joy and happiness in to your life as well. We only have to accept and
let Love surround us and abide in us, that love then has the power to start
creating a new heart. One fashioned like God originally intended.
"A
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh."[10]
Jesus, after forgiving the
Adulterous woman and telling her to go and sin no more, said
"I
AM the light of the world : he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life."[11]
Jesus
is the light of life. When God says let there be light, He himself is the one
shinning in our hearts. God is that Love I speak of. God is not only the God of
the material world, as we discussed in the first part of this book, but He is
the God of the spiritual mind also, and He works in very similar ways, because
creation, the natural, observable universe, is all created to help us
understand the way in which God relates to us.
Again, Jesus, right before restoring sight to a blind man said,
"I
must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh when
no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the
world."[12]
As
long as Jesus' presence is in the world He is the light of it. The light that
restores sight to the blind, words to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, and even
life to the dead, is the Love of God. He desires to shine that light of love
into our hearts. This love is power, it is God, and it can be yours.
You see, this world is an example to
all other created worlds and beings out in the universe. God had to create it
in order to show just how far love would go. Satan had accused God of being an
arbitrary God, who ruled the universe in the way He felt best, not for the best
interest of the created beings, but for his own interests. Satan accused God of
creating automatons, without the ability to choose for themselves, with no
choice but to serve Him or die. So God took this miserable rock, and set it in
orbit around a glorious sun, and made of it a perfect creation. He made man
into His image. Mankind was the crowning act of God’s achievements, housing in
his intellect the very emotions and feelings of God. And God looked at man,
knowing we would fall, knowing the end from the beginning, knowing He would
have to pay the ultimate price, God himself would become a created being for
all eternity. He looked on this creation and He said, “It is very good!”
God created man for communion, to be
His friend. He gave us emotions so that we could feel with him, and experience
a side of God never before experienced by the universe. God intended to dwell
with us, to walk with us as friend to friend. God could not have true
friendship with us without giving us the ability to choose whether or not we
wanted that friendship, and so freewill was given us, even though God knew His
friends would choose to destroy that friendship and ruin the peace of all of
heaven. In an act of love, God displayed to the universe that He truly is a God
of love. Even though we would choose to reject Him and destroy the Holy Spirit
in us, He had a plan to win back the hearts of mankind, and the entire
universe. By offering up His own existence and relationship with all of heaven,
He displayed to the universe that love, not control was the purpose of
existence.
“Who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”[13]
God did not create evil, but love
drove Him to allow it to happen. Love is the purpose of the universe, not evil
and destruction. Evil and destruction were our free choice to choose, and we
chose. Epicurus once stated,
“Is
God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he
able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then
whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
To answer this accusation against
God I say, God is able but not willing, because to prevent evil would be an
unloving act because it would not allow the free moral agency to choose their destiny.
No longer would love exist, for love forced is not love. Evil exists because
God is wooing the hearts of man. He desires us to choose for ourselves which
path we will take and whether or not we will love him. Do bad things happen to
good people? Yes they do, do good things happen to bad people? Yes of course.
God gives to all the gift of love and life, regardless of how evil they are, or
the wicked things they have done. The Bible says,
“…He
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust.”[14]
God’s love is like a law of nature.
Physical laws are the same for everybody in the universe. Gravity does not
reverse itself to one person because they are wicked, neither does the love of
God change from one person to another. God loves all equally, and on all, both
righteous and unrighteous God’s gifts of love are poured out. Bad things happen
as the natural result of sin. Car accidents kill people, not because God wanted
that to happen, or directed that person’s life in that direction, but because
natural causes and probabilities led up to that person being at that spot in
space at that specific time. We have chosen to allow chance and chaos to take a
hold of this world, and we cannot blame God for them. How can we blame God for
holding our freewill as sacred?
Solomon recognized this aspect of
God and penned it very well. He writes,
"I
returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the
battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of
understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to
them all."[15]
Good
things happen, we praise God. Bad things happen, we blame Him. Why? Time and
chance happen to everyone
the same regardless of your belief and worship of God. The rain falls on the
just and unjust. Our worship of God should not be based off expectations of a
good life. Chances are, the atheist down the street will be more blessed then
you. God operates off the laws of this universe, we are out of harmony with the
natural flow of the universe and as a consequence unless we gain access to that
life giving power again, all of life would cease to exist.
Why did God create this planet, with
its ability for evil? Because if He did not, He would deliberately be
withholding from a possible creation the ability to choose. God would have
ceased to be good if He withheld life from a planet that was going to reject
Him. Epicurus thought He had found the ultimate proof of the nonexistence of
God, but instead Epicurus missed the most loving truth about Him, that while He
is able to prevent evil, for our sakes, and for the relationship He desires to
have with us, He is not willing to do so.
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