Genesis 1:1 In the Beginning

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (NIV)

Genesis 1:1 is a very easy verse to find because it is at the very front of the Bible. It’s interesting that many people know this verse by heart even if they don’t normally read the Bible. It is probably one of the best known verses of the Bible other than John 3:16. It is a short sentence with only 10 words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” On the surface, it looks like a very simple statement. But like many parts of the Bible, if we look more closely we can get more meaning out of this verse.

The Beginning of What?

The first three words are “In the beginning.” The the question is, the beginning of what? It was the beginning of “the heavens and the earth.” In other words, of everything that we know of that exists today. This includes everything we can see or feel or touch. It was the beginning of the earth, the moon, the sun, the entire known universe, our oceans and mountains, all the plants and animals of the earth, and us. So if there was a beginning of all these things, then there was a time when none of these things existed, before God brought them into existence. That’s hard to imagine.

God Existed Before the Creation.

If we look just a little further in the verse, we see “In the beginning God.” So God existed before everything that we can see and feel and touch. After all, if God created the heavens and the earth, he must have existed first, in order to create them. And if we flip over to John 1:1 we see that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (NIV) We can look at these passages in more detail later, but John was speaking about Jesus Christ as being “The Word.”

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

So Jesus Christ was also with God before the creation of our world. And back in Genesis 1:2 it says “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” at the time of creation. So there was a time when everything that we know about in our physical world did not exist, but God, together with Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God, did exist.

Does God Have a Personality?

The next word in this verse tells us that “In the beginning God created.” So in just the first 5 words of the Bible, we start to see that creativity is part of God’s personality. Yes, God has a personality.  We don’t think about that sometimes, but God is a living being. He’s not just some painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he is alive and he has feelings and a personality.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:11 that “no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” But even though we cannot understand what’s in the mind of God, we can start to understand the personality of God through various hints that we see in the Bible. And here are just a few examples:

• Exodus 20:5 “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” He is jealous of our love and our worship, not wanting us to bow down to idols or false gods.

• Genesis 2:3 “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” So God blesses, and sometimes he rests.

• Exodus 4:14  “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses,” So he can get angry with us for not following his commands.

• Exodus 34:6  “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Thankfully, God is compassionate and slow to anger.
  

Many more attributes of God's personality can be seen elsewhere in the Bible, and these are just a few.

God is the Ultimate Creative Genius.

Part of God’s personality is that he is creative, as we can see in the first verse of the Bible. Just look around us and observe the natural world. From microscopic organisms to the largest plants and animals of the earth, awesome creativity is displayed in their design and function. Think about all the creativity it took to design our earth, our solar system, and the known universe. Could any human ever attempt such a feat? And yet there is more to be discovered that we don't even know about yet.

Our Own Creativity Comes from God.

We ourselves are part of God’s creation. In Genesis 1:26 “God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (NIV)

We inherited some of God’s creativity because we were made in his image. Are you a creative person? Are you an artist, musician, or designer? Then your creativity ultimately comes from God, who is the Great Creator, because God has given us his likeness. Many other occupations require a certain amount of creativity that may not be directly associated with the arts. Are you a problem solver of any kind, a computer programmer, a carpenter, or a manager? There are so many kinds of activities that we do every day require a certain amount of creativity, and this creativity ultimately comes from God.

All This in Just One Verse.

1. There was a time when our physical world did not exist.

2. God existed before that time.

3. God created everything in our world and our universe, including us.

4. God has a personality, and we can see hints of His personality in the Bible.

5. Amazing creativity is part of God’s personality.

But Wait, There’s More!

The first verse of the Bible is not some kind of question or a theory, it’s a statement. It says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” You can either accept that statement as truth, or reject it as fiction. You can choose to believe it, or not. So isn’t this statement also a test of your faith, right here in the very first verse of the Bible?

In Genesis 15:6 we can see that “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited to him as righteousness.” So belief in God is part of being righteous. And in Mark 10:15 Jesus said “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” The question is, are we able to believe the words of the Bible with the openness and trust of a little child?

Many people will say “It’s impossible that God created the earth because I was taught in school that the earth formed over bazillions of years and that some meteor deposited the building blocks of life on earth and somehow life was created, and we evolved from single cell organisms that eventually crawled out of the sea, and became monkeys and then human beings.”

One thing is for sure, if you hear someone telling you what happened a million years ago, they don’t know what they are talking about. They are only guessing. After all, were they around a zillion years ago to see the creation of the world? No? Then how could they be so sure about what happened? Think about that logically for a moment. Our oldest recorded history is only several thousand years old. Does anyone really know what happened a million years ago, let alone billions of years ago?

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” If you believe all that the world is telling you about the creation, isn’t that a form of faith and trust in what is unseen? The question is, will you believe in the teachings of the world, or like Abram will you believe in the Lord God? I chose to believe what the Bible says, and to believe that God, the Ultimate Creator created the heavens and the earth.

Until next time, peace. May God bless you and keep you in His protection.