GENESIS 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
GOD… Not man. Not the universe. And definitely NOT science. It is God who created the world and everything within and outside of it. The book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is the story of God introducing Himself as the creator.
It is God who created the world and everything within and outside of it. This creation includes human beings, like you and I. God, in His wisdom, anticipated that we would begin to wonder about our origin. That is why, the very first verse of the bible is an answer to integral questions like “WHO ARE WE? WHERE DID WE COME FROM? And… WHO PUT US HERE?”
That last question is the most important of all because it sets the tone for who we should look upon for answers to any other questions. To answer this question, God introduces Himself to us as our creator.
GENESIS 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
In this opening part of the Bible, before any other question such as, “where did evil come from?” is raised, we, as the readers are directed to the one to whom we should address all these questions.
The statement “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” unravels more information that what meets the eye at first. Here’s what we can learn:
- God was there from the very beginning.
- God created the heavens.
- God created the earth.
However, many questions can also arise from the statement “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth.” For instance:
Whose beginning is being addressed in Genesis 1?
The bible is addressed to human beings, like you and I. This means that we can infer that what these words mean is that God was there at the very beginning of mankind. In other words, “in the beginning (OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT) …” God already existed.
He was there… and He created the heavens and the earth.
The Big Question
To put it simply, the statement in Genesis 1 means that the beginning of the heavens and the earth (and human beings who live on earth) was NOT the beginning of God. God did not begin to exist when the world began to exist. God had to exist first, and for however long he had existed, before anything else that came from Him could exist. This statement also means that no one and nothing else can or should try to take credit for creating the world.
How did God create the world?
This question is answered through a consistent illustration in the following verses:
Gen 1:3 “Then God said, “let there be light,” and there was light.
Gen 1: 6-7 “Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” And that is what happened…”
Gen 1:9 “Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened.
Gen 1:11 “Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation…”
Gen 1:14 “Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the day from the night…”
Gen 1: 20 “Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind…”
God’s wonderful creation
Gen 1:24 “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us…”
The consistent fact is that everything was created through a command that came in the form of word of mouth. In each of these verses, God said something, and it became. He issued a command, and it was followed. To put it simply, whatever God willed as a command, became a reality. Creation responded to HIS voice.
This – and many other actions done by God- can be hard to comprehend. This is especially so because, as human beings, we find it hard to relate to anything that is not consistent with what we cannot do. Human beings naturally create things with their hands.
However, it is this contrast that separates God from human beings, making Him different and greater.
This leads to one other question, and truly, the most crucial of all: WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Why is it important for God to reveal that He is the creator of the heavens and the earth?
The question here is, “why does God choose to introduce Himself as creator at the very beginning of the bible?” And the answer is simple – so that no one and nothing else could define us and our origin.
This can be summed up in one word – IDENTITY.
Here’s the cheat code. The main purpose of the first chapter of the book of Genesis is to give us our IDENTITY. Although other themes such as the order of creation are also shown in the first chapter, the underlying intention of Genesis 1 is to give us our IDENTITY. By God revealing himself as the creator, he also simultaneously reveals us as his creation.
Underneath the statement ‘God created the heavens and the earth’ are echoes of our identity as human beings through unsaid words such as ‘YOU ARE MINE’ and ‘I MADE YOU’ and ‘YOU BELONG TO ME’ and ‘YOU ARE NOT HERE BY MISTAKE’.
Even though it is clear from Genesis 1 that God created the heavens and then the earth, other questions still arise. For instance:
- Why did God put man (you and I) in the earth?
- Did God and man co-exist on the earth, and what did that look like?
- Who was God referring to when he said, ‘let us create man…’?
- Does the order of creation matter?