In the Beginning pt 7

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Alrighty. Last post we looked at how God is casting the darkness out of our world. We are in the midst of God's movement and progression forward. Even though darkness continues to put up a fight, God is allowing it to come to its full. Think of the story of Abram. Abram is told by God that the fourth generation of his descendants will come back to Canaan. Why can't he possess the land now an let his descendants live there with him? "The sin of the Amorites has not reached its full measure."

So for those of us who are seeing a lot of the corruption of the world (which I must say I know a lot more than I should...), it is comforting to know that even in the midst of that, there is hope. God has always paved the way for hope. God has always provided for His chosen (even feeding them by ravens). But this isn't what I'm wanting to talk about necessarily today.

Last time we looked at how on the fourth day, God created the stars, the sun, and the moon. Here we read on the fifth day, God creates the bird and the fish. On the sixth day, God creates the animals. I assume that my reader has a little knowledge of the Bible (at least), so I would assume that you would also know that humanity was created on the sixth day.

So lets backtrack even further.

On the first day, God creates the heavens and the earth. On the second day, God creates an expanse in the heavens and calls it "sky." On the third day, God parts the seas and creates land.

Did you catch it?

How about it put it like this:
On the first day, God creates the heavens and the earth. On the fourth day, God fills the heavens with stars, the sun, and the moon. On the second day, God creates the skies. On the fifth day, God fills the skies and the seas with birds and fish. On the third day, God created the dry land. On the sixth day, God fills the land with animals and people.

So the first 3 days God is creating something, and the next 3 days God is filling that which He had created.

Isn't it interesting that God spends 3 days creating and 3 days filling? What else comes up in threes?

We know that God is displayed as creator, spirit, and light. He is 3, but He is 1 elohim (god).

The word bara is used as the verb meaning "create." The word bara appears 3 times in Genesis 1, and on the 3rd time, it happens 3 times. 

The phrase "evening and morning" occurs 6 times (2 times 3).

But that isn't all for number games that are happening here.

There are also sevens.

The first verse has 7 words in Hebrew.

The second verse has 14 (2 times 7) words in Hebrew.

The seventh paragraph has 35 word (5 times 7).

The word Earth appears 21 times (3 times 7).

The word God appears 35 times (5 times 7).

The phrase "It was so" appears 7 times.

The phrase "And God saw" appears 7 times.

With the usage of threes and the usage of sevens, I must then ask the question: got any tens?

"To make" appears 10 times.

"According to their kind" appears 10 times.

"And God said" appears 10 times. 3 times in relation to people; 7 times in relation to other creations.

"Let there be" appears 10 times. 3 times for the heavens; 7 times for the Earth...

After a while you start to wonder if the author had some help...

This first chapter of Genesis brings all sorts of strange things with it. The number 3 represents wholeness. The Hebrew word for wholeness is shalom. For any of your educated people, you might know that shalom is translated as peace. I remind you that Hebrew doesn't have abstracts without connecting it to some sort of tangible concrete. Shalom is the idea of completion and wholeness. It is the idea of nothing lacking. It isn't the idea of completion like "done." It is the idea of nothing lacking.

The number 7 is usually represented as completion. This time, I wish people wouldn't use the word completion at all. The number 7 is better understood as perfection. The idea isn't that God's creation was done in 6 days and on the seventh He rested, and that is where we get our idea of a 7 day week. It isn't about completion at all, really. It is that on the seventh day God rested because everything was "good." There was nothing that needed to be tinkered with to try and get it just right. 7 is the number of perfection, and many times in the Bible it goes hand in hand with the number 14. 

The number 10 brings with it the idea of divine perfection. They get this because of the 10 Commandments. However, I disagree slightly. I think that it is a representation of God. It is a reflection of all that He is and exactly as He is. There were 10 plagues on Egypt. This doesn't represent divine perfection, but seems to represent divine judgment. So I think that the number 10 is best described as the all encompassing nature of God. It is "God as He is."

So this number game in Genesis 1 seems to bring with it the idea of the wholeness of creation (number 3) and the perfection of it (number 7) comes from relationship with God (number 10).

This is exactly what the Hebrews knew to be the Gospel message. This is the concept of the Gospel from the Old Testament. Correct relationship with God, as He is, brings forth wholeness and perfection in the individual. The fact that this is available to us is what we call "the good news."

How interesting is it that the number game in Genesis not only seems to give this message, but even characterizes the creation itself with it? All is not right in creation unless God is present in it. This is another reason why I believe that Genesis 1 is a representation of God building Himself a Temple to dwell in. He formed the heavens and earth so that He might dwell within them.

Next time we'll get into humanity being created, and what does it mean to be image bearers?

In the Beginning pt 6

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

As promised before, I want to look at the darkness being "judged" in the creation of the world.

I feel like I've been looking at this a lot lately. Remember from the first 5 verses of Genesis that God separated the light from the darkness. He now puts over the darkness "rulers" called the sun and the moon. God first restrains the darkness to only being allowed to occupy the night, and here He then further contains the darkness by putting rulers over it.

But we know a little bit further into the story, don't we? We know about Genesis chapter 3. We know that Satan tempted Even (which, if Adam is the head, then why didn't he tempt Adam?) and Eve took the fruit and ate. She then gave some to her husband (which, if he was the spiritual authority, why did he trust her judgment beyond his own?) and he ate it too. Their eyes were thus opened.

What happened in that disobedience?

We'll further examine this scene later, but for now I want to bring up the point that in this darkness was brought into the creation. By disobedience (sin), darkness was allowed to rule over the day, night, and have its limits were thus taken away. The fall in the Garden wasn't about the depravity of man. It is a cosmic fall. Since everything is interconnected, Adam's sin brings darkness into the creation. Maybe this is why we see in Isaiah 24 that the moon shall be confounded and the sun will be ashamed.

They were supposed to be rulers over the darkness. Yet when we read the whole of the Bible, we see that there is to be an Antichrist who Paul calls "the man of sin." I am becoming increasingly more convinced that this man of sin is Satan in the flesh. This is a man so possessed by Satan that you cannot see the one without the other any longer. Obviously, it isn't Satan, because we read in Revelation that the Antichrist and his False Prophet are thrown into the fire before Satan is. There is a distinction made. However, I can't help but come to the conclusion that this man of sin is the full form of sin. He is corruption through and through.

The sun and moon were supposed to keep that from happening. They were supposed to be rulers over the darkness. Yet we read that this abomination will happen.

Darkness has infiltrated our world. It has seeped in through the cracks of sin. But this isn't how it will always be.

We can read the end of the Bible. We find in Revelation 21 and 22 that it is mentioned there is neither sun, nor moon. There are no stars. There is no darkness. God is the light. The Lamb is the light. There is no temple. God is the Temple. The Lamb is the Temple.

Isaiah also prophesied of this. He also claimed there would be a day that darkness would exist no more. One of the problems with the way that a lot of people read the Bible is that they think of night time. It is written in an ancient language: Hebrew. Darkness is no more night time than the sun is day time. They are related, yes. But when we talk about darkness we talk about chaos. We talk about sin. We talk about struggle. We talk about wars. We talk about devastation. We talk about destruction. We talk about the work of the devil. Satan's kingdom is even called the kingdom of darkness.

So when we read that there is no more darkness in the age to come, we must understand that it is saying a lot more than it will be day time all the time.

Notice that I mentioned that there is no more temple. Why? When we read the Bible, and we look at history itself, we find that the temple is a symbol of something. The temple symbolizes where God lives. In order to communicate with the gods, you must go to their temples and consult their priests. If you want a good harvest, you offer a sacrifice to the god of prosperity. In order to know what to sacrifice, you need to go to the temple and consult the priests.

After thousands of years, the temple started to bring a negative connotation with it. If you offer to the gods and you end up doing well, you need to offer more to the gods next year. You don't want to offend the gods. And what if you don't end up with a good harvest? You now need to offer more to appease the gods. So whether you are blessed or cursed, you need to continue to offer more and more and more.

Are the gods angry?

Do we know whether they have accepted our sacrifices?

Then this revolutionary book called Leviticus came around.

Leviticus tells us what to offer, how much to offer, and then says, "That is all." Once you have offered what you need to offer, you're done. You don't have to worry about whether God is angry or not. You don't need to worry about whether God accepts your sacrifice. If you follow what He lays out in Leviticus, then you will be recognized as atoned for.

And so there was a Temple in Israel. But even that became to be abused. There was one point in Israel's history that they were bringing unacceptable offerings to the Temple. They continued with business as usual. They treated God as though He is like all the other gods of the nations. They are just blocks of wood or gold that have been crafted with human hands. So what does it care if we offer a lame or blind goat instead of a pure and spotless lamb?

So plagues came upon Israel.

And after thousands of years of human history offering to the gods, there became a deep rooted animosity. Are the gods angry? Am I okay with the gods?

How many people have you heard say, "If I went into a church building, it would catch on fire." Or what about this one: "If (insert religious phrase here), then I would be struck by lightning."

Really?

Where does that come from?

The gods are angry.

And so we see in the end that there is no temple.

Why?

Because God isn't like that. Everywhere in Scripture He points to a different character than that. He never has been like that. He has never demanded more and more and more. He has never required that pastors should have to give up their "secular" lives to be ministers. He has never said that if He loves you then you would be wealthy. He has never said that He wants you to have the best the world has to offer. That is the lie of Satan.

God accepts us where we're at.

He sees us where we are and says, "You don't have to live like that."

You don't have to live like that...

God embraces us where we are. He calls out to us from wherever we are, no matter how dark that place might be. Remember that He hovered over that darkness in the beginning? He isn't afraid to get in the muck and crap with you. He isn't ashamed of you.

And that is what makes this so powerful.

God is with us.

That is the Christmas message, right?

Emmanuel: God with us.

And at the end of everything, we read that the main point of heaven is that God is with us. We don't find darkness to oppress us: God is there. We don't find a temple to burden us: God is there.

And that is the point that has been proclaimed from the start. God doesn't just love you, He actually likes you. He actually wants to spend time with you. He actually created this world so that He could dwell with us on it. This world wasn't made to be far off from Him, and we have to somehow invoke the name of God and call upon Him for Him to hear us. He was supposed to be right here next to us.

But the real kicker isn't that it is still somewhere else for another time.

It is for here and now.

"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord," Romans 6:5-11.

May the God of Heaven and Earth grant you this kind of resurrection - freedom from sin and darkness.

Grace and peace.

In the Beginning pt 5

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

My focus now turns toward the land appearing. God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind..." Notice that God doesn't say, "Let there be..."

This is a distinction that is noteworthy for a simple reason. When God creates the animals and people and birds and fish, He says, "Let there be..." Here, God isn't the one who creates the vegetation. The Earth itself brings forth the vegetation. God does direct it and speak it forth, but God does not create it directly. God creates it indirectly.

Whats the point?

There is the complication of what did Adam eat? We can see that God tells Him in the second chapter to be vegetarian. The first time we see God say that humanity is allowed to eat meat is after the flood. If Adam ate vegetation, and vegetation is living, was there death before sin?

I am not going to say that trees, grass, and herbs are not living. We can see that they have cells that are very alive and active. If Adam cuts down some herbs to let them dry, is he killing them?

This is somewhat important. The real debate is about evolution. In order for there to be evolution, death has to exist before sin. Well, I'm not going to get into the evolution debate at this time. I simply want to pose the argument that for Adam to eat the vegetation, it is not death.

Think ahead a little bit to Genesis 4. Cain killed his brother Abel. The blood from the ground cried out to God.

That doesn't happen in the Garden.

So there isn't any sign of bloodshed at all before sin.

I think that this is the point. "The life is in the blood." It isn't that plants are not living, but that Hebrew word for "life" can be translated as breathe. God breathed into Adam, and Adam became a living being. It's the same idea. The breathe of life is in the blood.

So, it isn't that plants are not living. What is more important is that God has not breathed the breath of life into them.

Next thing to ponder: the first three days are building.

Remember that first entry about Genesis 1:1? It appears like God is building a Temple for Himself to dwell in. What does that mean for these first three days and what is done within them?

There is a premium placed on that which God chooses to do and how He chooses to do it.

Remember in 1 Kings when Solomon built the Temple? He built 3 parts to the Temple. The outer court was where sacrifices would be made to God. The sacrifices in this context would be the gathering of the praises of the creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth moans and groans.

The inner court was where the priests ministered unto the Lord by prayer and worship. There was no light from the outside in this area. The only light received was from a menorah. Remember what happened on the second day? God separated the waters to build the inner court (if you will). He made the atmosphere and blocked off the outer court from the inner court with a layer of water.

What about this day three?

The third place in the Temple was the Holiest Place, or the Holy of Holies. This was where God Himself said to Moses "I will meet with you face to face." Here in the deepest part of the Temple (for Moses it was the Tabernacle) where the ark of the covenant was found is where God promised to speak. This room was completely cut off from all light. 

There is something to know about the ark of the covenant. It was built out of wood, and overlaid with gold. In it was the Testimony (the 10 Commandments). On top of it was what the King James translators called the mercy seat. In the Hebrew, the wording used for mercy seat is lid. So where did they get mercy seat?

Mercy seat comes from the New Testament, but it is not a wrong interpretation. The idea is that these two cherubs that sit opposite to one another and look down to the ark and forward to one another stretch their wings up and over their heads to touch one another. God says in between them He will speak to Moses. But they're touching. There isn't room between them. And that is the point. It is possible that these cherubs were placed on the side of the lid so their wings went up along the back to form the back of a throne. The lid then would make the ark look like a throne upon which God would sit.

This is why it was called the mercy seat: mercy triumphs over judgment. God says that in between the cherubs we will speak with Him. But the cherub wings touch one another. It is in our lives together and the interconnectedness of all things that God meets with us. It is on our being outside and one with creation that we can find God more than when we're locked in the house and barely see the sunshine.

The people I know who claim there is no god are the very people who go day after day after day being inside, sucking the air that has been adapted to either be warm in the winter or cold in the summer, disconnecting themselves from the creation around, and then claim that when they sit in their homes they can't see God anywhere around them.

Duh.

The point of the third day and what God is creating here is that He is found in the everything. When we sit outside in the fresh air and learn to just enjoy the beauty that we see, we find it much easier to find God. It is much easier to find God when we live on a farm than when we live in a school building always behind a computer. God is in His creation, and if we can't be one with His creation, then we can't be one with Him.

In Hebrew, the word for wilderness is attached to the word for word. Davar means word. The idea is that it is an order of letters to create a word. These letters formed in this way mean something. Devarah (Deborah) means bee. The idea of the bee is that it has a hive full of order (from the way the bees act and interact to the very precise way of building honeycomb). The word for wilderness is midvar. Midvar comes from the idea that when you leave nature to itself, it will take care of itself. It is at complete harmony and order by itself. It is when mankind comes in and starts trying to take care of it and adapt it that we find destruction and pollution. The wilderness is a place of order - and order comes from God.

So the idea of the Garden (or the third day of forestry being made) is a direct link to the Holy of Holies. God is found there. He is in the ordered place. God is building a Temple for Himself in Genesis 1, and we have the choice to either be a part of that Temple or to destroy that Temple.

In the Beginning pt 4

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

When I approach a text like this, I want to know what the text is trying to communicate. There are a lot of creation scientists who take these verses and immediately start trying to teach about how science proves that this actually happened the way the Bible says it happened. The original intent of these Scriptures isn't about that, though.

So what is it that is trying to be communicated?

The first thing I do is look at the Hebrew. The verb comes first wayomer (wah-yoh-mair). The waw means and. Interestingly, the yohd prefix means "will" (kind of, but we won't go into Hebrew linguistics). The verb in verse six should say, "And He will say..." It could also be "they," but the context of the first 5 verses being Elohim (a plural noun used as a singular) tells me that it should be He, not they. So when it says wayomer elohim, we translate it as "God, He will say..." The "he" is a reflection back onto God.

We have in the next part "Let there be..." This verb is yahi (yaw-hee). The verb root is hayah (haw-yaw). Once again we have a yohd prefix to mean "will." The verb itself means to come to pass or become. "He will be..."

Raqiah is the noun form of raqi, which means to expand. So "And God will say, He will be an expanse..."

Tavek means "in the middle..." 

"God will say, He will be an expanse in the middle..."

Mayim is the plural for water (waters). "God will say, He will be an expanse in the middle of the waters." The ha- prefix tells us that the word "the" is supposed to be there.

We have that ver hayah again. This time the conjugation is wihi (wee-hee). This would be literally translated as "become." 

"And God will say, He will be an expanse in the middle of the waters become..." 

The Hebrew word badal means divide or separate.

"And God will say, He will be an expanse in the middle of the waters become separate..." 

The next word is bayin. Bayin means a separation or a space between. It comes from the Hebrew verb bene. Bene means to discern. The idea of discernment is that you have to separate the true from the false. Know that Hebrew always searches for an action to help understand something that is actionless (like faith, discernment, grace, etc). 

So we have: "And God will say, He will be an expanse in the middle of the waters (to) become separate (with a) space between..." Notice I added the (to) and the (with a) in order to help with understanding.

Mayim, once again, is water or waters. This time it is repeated: mayim lamayim. The lamed prefix means to or for. 

So Genesis 1:6 reads: "And God will say, He will be an expanse in the middle of the waters to become separate with a space between water to water."

Now the difference isn't much, but it is enough that makes me ask the question "who is He?" He will be an expanse...

The He is in relation to God. God Himself will come in the midst of (or in the middle) of the waters that He had been hovering over. God Himself places Himself as the division between the waters. What is this division? It is the atmosphere. God called the "firmament" or the separation Heaven.

Think forward a little bit. In the book of Matthew, Jesus continually talks about the kingdom of heaven. I've heard people say that the kingdom of heaven is different from the kingdom of God. Not true. The Hebrews were able to look back at this verse and see that God Himself was the expanse called heaven. So in reverence to the name of God, they would not say God, or YHWH, or Lord. They even today will write G-d (without the o). The kingdom of heaven was a way of saying or referencing God without saying His name.

So the point of these verses isn't that there was water over the heavens (whether that is outer space or the atmosphere is unclear); the point is that God Himself is the expanse. The point is that God isn't far away, but near. 

So what do we do with that?

If God is near, what does that mean? 

I believe that when people choose to live from the Spirit of God, they tap into this rauch that separated the waters. This shows us the heart of God. He has always desired to be with us and in us and through us. The new creation is in Genesis 1. That is why its so perverse to call a building church. That is why it is so detestable to claim Christ and walk in darkness. God actually wants to be with us and dwell among us, and there are millions of people across the world who only desire for Moses to go up on Mount Sinai to speak with God. We'll listen to the Moses (or pastor), but we are unwilling to speak to God Himself.

We can't begin to understand the implications. God is with us. Even if we aren't with Him, He is with us. Spirituality is finding Him here and now. Spirituality is the recognition that God has been present all along. Heaven is not something future in the clouds somewhere, but living and breathing and moving along the earth here and now. Heaven is not somewhere else. Heaven is here and now.

We have the choice: heaven or earth? Do we want to dwell with God? Or do we want to continue to be people of this earth ignoring God? That choice is what will send people to heaven or hell. If we cannot even bare heaven when it isn't in its full radiance, how are we supposed to enjoy it in the age to come? Heaven offends us now. Why are people getting angry at the idea of being sent to hell when they are the same people who hate the idea of heaven?

Heaven is the place where purity dwells. Heaven is the place (or should I say age?) that we cannot be immoral. We cannot be oppressive. We cannot be abusive. We cannot be selfish. Heaven is the time where oppression ends and freedom begins. And it is accessible here and now.

To some, this is the best news ever. To others, this is bondage and oppression. "You mean I can't do my drugs? I can't rape? I can't masturbate? I can't have sex with whomever I please? I can't extortion? I can't hate? I can't be a racist?" I guess the system works for some. For others like myself, the system only abuses. They take advantage of someone like me. Freedom (even if it isn't fully now) is hope. I am willing to endure hardships and struggle now for the sake of glory beyond understanding then.

In the Beginning Pt 3

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Last time we looked at the second verse: the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

This time I would like to look at verse 3. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 

Once again, we need to look at the Hebrew words to understand a little bit of what is going on. The Hebrew word for light is or. Or is found here first in relation to the light of God, and elsewhere it seems to always have this connotation with it. In the Psalms, David prays, "Let the light of your face shine forth." Once again, the word is or. In 1 Samuel 14:29, "But Jonathan said, My father has troubled the land. Look now, how my countenance has brightened because I tasted a little of this honey."

What is interesting with this way the word or is used is that it is translated as "brightened." Jonathan's eyes were "brightened," or he was "enlightened" because he ate some honey. The Hebrew for honey seems to also have a strange conspicuousness to it. When the word honey comes up in your Bible, mark it. It is always in relation to the word of God (the Torah). In Hebrew thought, the Torah was not simply the Law; it was the Law, the whole of Scripture, the teachings of the rabbis, the Land, the people Israel, God in the midst of all of it, and they are all interconnected that you cannot tear apart one from the other. The Hebrews are not complete without the Land, and the Land is not complete without the Law, and the Law is not complete without God, and it all goes back together from there.

So when we read "Let there be light..." what is really happening here is that this light emanates from God Himself. It is almost as though God is saying, "Let me, who is Light, be an intimate part of this cosmos." 

Now, remember that in verse two we saw that the ruach was this energy or presence of God that stirs the creation to light and order. Now we have this light which is also a character of God that brings light and order. In Hebrew thought, light and darkness go hand in hand with order and chaos. When it says that darkness was upon the face of the deep, it means the waters and the earth were in a chaotic state. These concepts are wrapped up together in a way that we cannot ask, "Is it darkness or chaos?" It means both - yes.

So lets continue... In verse 2 God is making the point that He is bringing order and light into the darkness and chaos. In verse 3 God is making the point that He is bringing order and light into the darkness and chaos. And in verse 4, God separates the light from the darkness.

I like to think that the light that shines in verses 3-4 is not literal, but (though it isn't limited to) spiritual. This is a spiritual light that shines forth into the spiritual darkness and chaos. It is something that brings the concept forth that God is cleaning house - if you will. That which was in chaos and unfilled and unfinished is being made ordered and being formed and brought into completion.

We have in verse 4 that God "saw the light; that it was good." That Hebrew word is tov. Tov is translated here as good, but seems to indicate more of a functionality. God saw the light that it functioned and performed that which it was sent forth to do. God then separates the light from the darkness.

I'll try to remember to touch on this when we reach day four, but in case I don't remember to look into it with more detail, I'll put a glimpse here. I see this as a judgment. God separates the light from the dark, thus judging the darkness and containing it. God limits the darkness, and in doing so He causes the creation to find an equilibrium. It finds balance. Since darkness is contained, God can continue to create and bring forth more order and peace and harmony and balance. 

"God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So evening and morning were the first day."

Here we have the third time in the first 5 verses of the Bible that God repeats the concept of being brought out of darkness and into light. We first have the ruach stirring up the creation, we then have the light puncturing the darkness and bringing order, and we now have "evening and morning..."

Why evening before morning? In Hebrew thought, the evening comes first. We, in our Greco-Roman mindsets, look at it as morning, then night, then morning, then night. The Hebrews look at it as evening, then morning, evening, then morning. They come out of darkness and into light. It is an exodus message right in the first 5 verses. And every day it is mentioned, "evening and morning was the second day..." Each time - evening and morning, evening and morning, evening and morning...

God is writing an exodus message of Him coming into this creation and dwelling here with it. That was the point of Sinai as well. God was marrying His people, and thus creating a priesthood to reflect God's image to the world, and the praise of the world back up to God.

When Hebrew mentions something 3 times in a row like this, it is very important. Hebrew poetry will repeat itself, and each time it repeats it brings a fuller understanding to what was last said. Here we have 3 repetitions, and in the Hebrew mindset there is nothing more attention grabbing and sacred.

God wants us to get the point: He is freeing us. He is liberating us from darkness. He has intentionally come into this world and dwelt with us. He has intentionally come into the muck and the mire with us. Can you understand what is being said?

You don't have to live like you are living. If God is for us, then who can be against us? You don't have to live like this. You don't have to go out and buy and buy and buy to fill the void in your heart. You don't have to work and work and work until you are so drained that you crash (its called a midlife crisis). You don't have to cut yourself anymore (whether literally or metaphorically). You don't have to live like this.

You don't have to live like this.

Get it.

You do not have to live like this...

In the Beginning pt 2

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

Lets continue through this first five verses. We talked last time about how God creating the world is likened to God creating Himself a temple to dwell in. Here I want to try and get through the concepts of some of these Hebrew words.

"The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep." Lets be honest here. This is a verse for every single one of us. We all know what it is talking about. Our lives have had meaninglessness and seemed to be void of any reality. Our lives have been shaped, but in a sense completely formless. We understand full well what it feels like to in all our conquering and all our successes to feel like it just isn’t enough.

The book of Genesis was written (so its assumed) by Moses. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. So Moses is talking to a people who just came out of bondage. It is a message for those who were enslaved and are now set free. This is why there is emphasis on the “formless and void” and the “darkness upon the face of the deep.” The Hebrew term tohu vav vohu is used for “formless and void.” It means unfilled and unfinished. It is a perfect display to those who have been enslaved (or we who feel unfulfilled in life and disillusioned to the world saying just to crowd our lives with more and more stuff). 

It is from this backdrop of darkness, formlessness, void, lack, unfulfillment, unachieved, etc that we read “The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.”

This is important. First, let me say this. Hebrew doesn’t care to describe things with what it looked like. When we find a description of what something looks like, it is usually a stress of the functionality, not of the description. Think of Noah’s Ark (which we’ll touch on later). The dimensions are given of the ark, and it sounds like a box. The point is that this thing was huge - to fit tons and tons of animals in it.

So when we read that the world was unfilled and unfinished, it is to bring a point. When it says darkness is on the face of the deep, it is to bring a point. The Spirit of God hovered over it…

The Hebrew word for Spirit in this case is ruach (roo-awk). The ruach elohim merachephet. Hebrew is poetic. We think in a Greek way when interpreting it. Ruach is interpreted as spirit, breath, or wind. But none of those words are really what ruach means. Hebrew doesn’t use abstract thoughts like “spirit.” The fuller idea of ruach is an ancient energy of God.

In Hebrew thought, ruach was this energy of God that is laced through the fabric of space-time. In Genesis 2, the word for “breath” that is used for man is nephesh. It is considered that the ruach imparted the divine image to man, and the result was the breath (nephesh) of life. 

It is my opinion that ruach is the wisdom spoken of in Proverbs 8 that was with God in the beginning and laid the foundations of the world. Many people attribute that to Christ, but I think it was the ruach. Ruach is the Holy Spirit. Ruach comes from God - never from anything else.

I would suggest to you to read Proverbs 8 in that perspective.

Now, what is being stated here in the fact that the ruach hovered? This is piel participle conjugation of the verb rachaph. Rachaph means to relax. The piel conjugation is an intensifying conjugation. The participle is the use of a verb as an adjective (the running man). So lets get this straight… The ruach (or energy, life, presence) of God intensely relaxed over the waters? What does that mean?

Well, remember that this is a participle. It is saying, “the intensely relaxing presence of God over the waters.” Once again: huh?

This is found one other place in the Bible (but only one). It is once again attributed to God. It talks about God bringing His people into the Land “like an eagle stirring up her young.” So apparently, this stirring up is the same word as “moved.” Why is it translated stirring up in one sense and moved in another?

Part of it is that it makes the most sense. Part of it is that our translators (for the most part) are very Greek in their understanding. It has to mean something - it can’t mean a concept or state of being. What is being communicated is that the rest of God is what brought forth out of the darkness and chaos light and order. God was simply in a state of rest observing the heavens and earth, and from that restful presence of God the heavens and earth began to stir.

It is the presence of God that brought about all things. Another way it is put in the New Testament: Christ in you - the hope of glory (Col 1:27).

This is deep, deep stuff. This hits on the Sabbath, which hadn’t even been created yet. This hits on a characteristic and nature of God that we have not yet acknowledged nor rightfully understood. it is the rest of God’s presence that brings forth life. The chaos and darkness cannot continue when God’s presence is there. Maybe this is who we ought to interpret Isaiah 59:2. 

Our sin doesn’t separate us from God in the sense that God cannot dwell where sin is. Our sin separates us from God in the sense that sin cannot dwell where God is. If we are in obvious sin, it is because we have chosen sin over God. If God were in our lives, sin cannot remain any longer. Darkness and chaos are banished at the presence of God (and even at the rest of God).

God doesn’t have to work and strive and bring forth - the earth already starts to stir in response to God. 

So lets stop here. Next time I will talk about the darkness and light and how this is another way of stating what we just said. The imagery of God’s presence bringing forth order and light out of the chaos and darkness is then repeated with God creating light and separating it from the darkness. In Hebrew, this is a way of poetry (but the point is to bring fuller meaning and understanding to both the former and the latter).

In the Beginning

For the New Year, I wanted to do a study through Genesis. I’m not sure if I’ll go all the way through or not. It just seemed like a smart idea to begin my year with the beginning of the Bible.

So lets try this.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Lets start with just the first phrase of the Bible. “In the beginning…” When is the beginning? People have asked this and debated on this for quite some time. For me, it seems obvious. The beginning is the beginning. There cannot be any measurement before the beginning, because then “the beginning” couldn’t truly be called the beginning. And so we have people who debate about whether this was when God was created or when the world was created or if there was a gap between the beginning and the creation of the world…

Let me put it this way: if this is the beginning, then it must be the beginning of time. Time would not have existed before this. Why? If time was in existence before this point, then it isn’t the beginning. So when questions like, “What did God do before this?” come up, we can assuredly answer with, “Making canes for people who would ask such pointless questions.” Before this there is no time. If God is outside of time, then He exists in a realm of timelessness.

Lets try this.

If God is timeless, then there is neither beginning or end. If there is neither beginning nor end, there is no creation. The creation must start with the creation of time. Otherwise, our universe would have no beginning nor end - it would be eternal. We know that this universe is not eternal, though it was taught for a few decades that it is. If this universe had a beginning, then the question becomes, “when and how?”

There are some who like to say that this beginning was billions of years ago. Others claim that this beginning was 4004 BCE. This beginning cannot be known. The very laws of physics make it impossible to know. As soon as someone says that we get cosmological evidence the universe might be billions of years old, the question can be raise about Einstein’s theory of relativity. Einstein stated that time and gravity are inversely related. This has been proven. The stronger the pull of gravity, the slower time moves. The weaker the pull of gravity (like vast outer space), the faster time moves. The problem with claiming any age of the universe is that light might travel for billions of years before it gets here, but that does not mean the earth is billions of years old. This is the issue with any scientists who want to claim from cosmology they discovered the age of the universe. You cannot prove scientifically any dating of the universe beyond guestimation from invalid sources.

So lets try this again. If we cannot truly know when, what about the how question? How did this earth come into existence? The first verse of the Bible says that God created it. I don’t want to explore science and “prove” that God must exist; I only wish to take this verse and exposit it. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

So at a time when people built temples for the gods to dwell in, this is written down. Do you see the implications? It is well known that the gods were carved by human hands. They were placed inside temples made by human hands and worshipped by those same humans. Men made their own idea of what or who or how god is. They also came up with their own idea of how many gods there might be. 

This God, however, made His own Temple and called it “the heavens and the earth.” This God made this universe for the sake of having His own place to dwell and reside - even creating people to dwell with Him forever and to tend and keep this Temple. 

Now if God created this world as a dwelling place for Himself, does it seem like it fits that God would then take this world and destroy it as quickly as most evangelicals claim He will do? I know that it says in Isaiah 65 and 66 that there will be a new heaven and new earth. I also know that the same language is referred to in Revelation 21. The old has passed away and the new has come. 1 Peter talks about the earth being melted by fervent heat. Revelation 20 talks about the end of the world being caused by fire from heaven. I know that Haggai 2:6 says that God will shake everything that can be shaken and all that will remain is the kingdom that cannot be shaken (reference Hebrews 12:25-28). I know that there are many, many references to the end of the world being consumed in fire and that the world will no loner exist and that is why God must create a new heavens and new earth.

This raises 2 questions. What would cause God to so go against His nature that He would destroy instead of create?

We see that God did this with the food. And so we need to wrestle with the question of whether God is judging the world or if He is creating.

The second question is one that I ask (many others don’t). Do these Scriptures indicate a God who is angry and going to destroy the world?

I don’t think so. Fire and heat and melting are all symbols used in the prophetic Scriptures as purification. In order to purify silver, you must melt it down. In order to purify diamonds, you must send them through the fire. These judgments are not to be thought of as an angry god in the sky who will destroy everything in order to let a select few into heaven. We are to think of these judgments as a God who is purifying and recreating through that purification a people who are able to endure heaven. When the flames of heaven come, will we be able to stand?

When God comes down onto this earth that final time, will we have worked into our souls and spirits a character of loving God that will be able to endure heaven?

Paul talks in 1 Corinthians about building with gold, silver, and precious stones. He says that the foundation of our lives as Believers is Jesus Christ. We cannot abandon that foundation. But we can build upon the foundation. Do we build with human hands - that is to say, with carnal things? Do we build with things of the flesh? Or do we build with the things of the spirit? It all comes down to what we put on our souls. If we continue to create hell here on earth for other people, then we will find ourselves entering into that time of purification with a lot needing to be burnt off of us. But if we live according to the Spirit, and we pursue the things that God pursues (taking care of the widow, freeing the oppressed, loving the orphan, providing for the foreigner, being faithful, etc), then we will find ourselves in that day to have the character necessary for heaven.

So when we look at the judgments of God, we’re not looking at some angry god who is sending everyone to Hell. We see God purifying everything, and if we’re not able to be made pure, then we’re going to spend our time in agony. The fire that Jesus talks about is a fire of purification. If we have nothing beyond corruption to offer, then we have no place in His Kingdom. If our foundation is not even Jesus Christ, then how can we build upon that foundation anything that will last?

This is what Haggai and Hebrews were talking about. When God shakes everything, the only thing that will stand is His Kingdom. If our lives are not constituted by that Kingdom, and we make our choices and our livelihood out of what the world says is to be done, then we will have no place to find rest in the age to come. 

If we can just look at the first verse of Genesis and start to wrestle with these deep probing questions of faith and reality, then what happens when we look at the rest of that passage I first quoted (Gen 1:1-5)?

Tune in next time.