This year brought an opportunity to re-visit the opening chapters of the book of Genesis with a study group. Last night, we commenced part 2 of these studies with a re-cap by me reading a piece I wrote which sparked the whole project off, so I thought it might be useful to also post it here for a wider audience. Hope it proves helpful.
I don’t know if I
have a particular favourite place, but there are several I enjoy, and there are
particular locations I like to stand when in these spots, because of the view
they allow me to appreciate.
The same is true
when it comes to theology.
There’s a very
telling conclusion to the opening account of the origin of the material realms.
In summation of all
that had been shown in the preceding verses, the writer concludes “these are
the generations of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the
day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4).
We tend to think of
the opening chapter of Genesis and its outline of the act of creation a great
deal in regards to seven days, but this summation (speaking of all that had
occurred as a ‘day’) quickly asks us to argue with an interpretation of this
which would seek to be literal in only the most elementary of fashions – seven
24 hour periods.
The reasons for
this are many, but the first has to do with the fact that the ‘generations’ of
this astonishing work do not begin with the arrival of light or of day, but
deep in the folds of those times referred to in the opening two verses of the
account. Here we read of a primordial knitting of things, a brooding of God
Himself upon the elemental nature and ‘void’ of what would be before the
generating Word can be spoken.
This is common to
other creation passages in the scriptures.
The closing address
of the Lord to Job (Chapters 38-41) grants us a breathtaking look into the
magnitude of the endeavour the Lord was engaged upon as He prepared those first
works of the created order – the laying of the world’s foundations, the binding
of the seas, through knowing the recesses of the deep. All of this was in
motion as His Spirit prevailed upon the first, “formless” estate of the heavens
and earth.
How long did this
elaborate preparation take?
The church fathers
are quite helpful here.
Augustine for
example notes how what is provided in the main text of Genesis 1 is a record of
"heaven & earth when day was made" - clearly something distinct
from what is spoken about in Genesis 1:1-3. He also notes, in the six days of
creation, how what we understand as the normal measurements of day - morning
and evening - are different (they begin the other way around, evening and
morning, and that the light of that creation does not clearly become the sun
itself – probably because of the initial condition of the earth - until the
fourth day).
"The Beginning", notes Basil, is not yet time in the sense defined from verse 4 onwards. Creation, notes Gregory, springs into being from that beginning, hence the transition from void to existence as something given true form, place and purpose. The beginning occurs, notes Augustine, 'in that ever-present eternity', which itself speaks to us of creation's existence outside of the confines of time. In that place (the residence of God Himself), nothing spoken by the Word vanishes or diminishes.
"The Beginning", notes Basil, is not yet time in the sense defined from verse 4 onwards. Creation, notes Gregory, springs into being from that beginning, hence the transition from void to existence as something given true form, place and purpose. The beginning occurs, notes Augustine, 'in that ever-present eternity', which itself speaks to us of creation's existence outside of the confines of time. In that place (the residence of God Himself), nothing spoken by the Word vanishes or diminishes.
In the light of
such considerations, any attempts at a naturalistic cosmology will always be
provisional at best. We may be able to place age ‘tags’ on materials used in
the process of creation, but the ages involved here, as the church Fathers
suggest, are no doubt far more (in depth and scope) than we can fully
comprehend. This is clearly the nature of what the Lord is seeking to reveal to
us in his words about this to Job.
It is the Lord who
profoundly and mysteriously makes such powers and forces, who would stretch out
the expanse of the heavens by His great wisdom and understanding, that draws
our attention, as we approach the first day, away from the vast stretch of what
would become the realm of the stars to the world that would become our home.
We have marvelled
at the expanse and the beauty of the cosmos, but that very awareness and
realisation points us back, down from the stars, to the fact that in ourselves,
we find probably the strangest enigma of all – creatures who inhabit a world
perfectly set in place to allow a staggering diversity of life in an ordered
environment, who not only comprehend such splendour, but also possess an
identity which causes us to enquire and study the nature of what we are and
what facilitates all of this.
Science has allowed
us to understand that our universe indeed had a beginning and, because of the
nature of interplay between entropy and energy, would almost certainly
conclude, in respects to natural processes, in a material end, but in spite of
numerous unsatisfactory attempts, we are still at a loss to explain by
materialistic means the astonishing origin and purpose of life beyond the merely functional, which says
essentially nothing regarding the truly mind-boggling nature of realms such as
consciousness, the elaborate nature of structure and beauty in nature beyond
function, or the virtually miraculous nature of the properties of energy.
Scientists who are working in new fields (such as the physics of information)
are aware that these intriguing realms have a reality just as vital to the
natural as, for example, the physics of energy, but the ramifications, as in
the sphere of Quantum Mechanics, are indeed profound, and may ultimately
support a growing scientific view that information preceded the material, and
that this indeed points to mind and purposeful intent in the formation of the
universe.
Science, in spite
of recent opinions to the contrary, has indeed already provided us
confirmations regarding the nature of our existence that are incontrovertible.
The discoveries
made in astronomy from the 1920’s onward by Hubble, Penzias, Wilson, and
others, justify the conclusion reached by Astronomer Robert Jastrow - the essential elements in the astronomical and Biblical accounts of
Genesis are the same: the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and
sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.He also noted that after scaling the heights of
research, Science has reached a summit only to discover that the theologians
were already at the top, revelation being first to bring us to the same vital
conclusion – we are the handiwork of God.
It is within the realm of theological
material that we also find what essentially relates to the pattern of the
structure of creation. Genesis 1:1 distinguishes this glorious work between
three realms – the ‘heavens’ (the cosmos itself, but also the realm of heaven,
where God resides) and the earth.
We very rarely make note of the fact
that the domain deemed ethereal and therefore unreal by many – the location
where all the hosts and creatures spoken of as being around the throne of God –
is actually part of the very same work of creation as the stars, the earth and
the vast diversity of life upon earth, but this is the case. Once again, this
unfolding of the true nature of what was made in the formation of the heavens
and earth seeks to point us back to a deeper reference point than what we
currently can see and therefore perceive, and with good reason, for as we look
deeper, we are invited to discover the true source and intent within the work
of creation itself, as provided in the book of Proverbs:
“The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding He established the heavens; by His knowledge the deeps broke
open and the clouds drop down the dew” (3:19,20). An observation of the union
between heaven and earth.
Solomon here alludes to something truly
profound. Whilst ‘knowledge’ is the means whereby the Lord implements the very
cycles which will perpetuate an environment to allow for life to be sustained
on earth, the entire creation is underpinned not simply by a working employment
of the knowledge of quantum or Newtonian physics via the most elaborate
mathematics, but something far greater – a wisdom
This is again expressed in greater
detail in Proverbs chapter 8.
“The Lord possessed
(raised/owned) me in the beginning of His way,
before His acts of
old. I was set up (ordained) from everlasting,
before the earth
was.
When there were no
depths, I was established, before there were fountains
laden with waters,
Before the
mountains and the hills, I was there, before He had made the earth, or fields,
or the first from
the earth’s dust.
When He prepared
the Heavens, I was there. When He drew a circle upon the face of the deep and
stretched out the firmament over it. When He established the skies above and
secured the fountains of the deep, giving the sea its limit, appointing the
foundation of the earth, then I was beside Him as a master and director of the
work, and I was His daily delight, rejoicing, as the earth was inhabited and
delighting in the sons of men”.
(Chapter 8:22-31).
It’s common for us
to look upon wisdom as merely an attribute (something we have or don’t), but
what Solomon seeks to express (for example, by personifying this quality amidst
the book of Proverbs – see chapter 1:20-33, 9:1-12) is that at the very core of
establishing what has been made, God has employed a foresight and skill (a
crucial part of Himself) which brings a security and purpose to creation which
will endure and thereby bring into being the true intent in such design.
This is clearly the
theme of the Prophet Jeremiah, when he echo’s Solomon’s words of chapter 3
amidst an address to Israel on the folly of following other gods who are
entirely inept and impotent in comparison to the great intents and deeds of the
one true God (Jeremiah 10:12).
It is what God
intends that is the heart of the issue in all of the creation accounts, for in
all of them, we find expressed a seeking to convey an understanding of the
magnificence and splendour of what He is about, not only in the vastness of
what has been made, but equally in the purposes of this – to allow us to
comprehend who is behind the canvas
Psalm 104 also
returns to these themes.
The writer seeks to
point us to the witness of God’s majesty and splendour by looking at the
magnificence of creation. He speaks of it as a garment in which the Lord has
wrapped Himself and displayed the true weight and wonder of His character. All
we see, he states, is seeking to show us something of the greatness of the mind
and hand behind such beauty, power, and sustained, vast diversity. The Psalm
underlines that these are His works, not ours and certainly not the consequence
of chance or folly. They are created for His good pleasure, and they are
intended to turn our eyes and minds to the greatness of their source, that we
might indeed, like the Psalmist, be truly astonished by what we find.
All of these
creation accounts speak of the almost fundamental nature in what was made of
“the waters”. In Genesis 1, they appear to be twinned with the primordial
elements of darkness and void, and in the other passages, they are evidenced as
a force needing to be bound or tamed.
This image is
indeed fitting. The waters would teem with life, but it is highly significant
that the life which would become ‘soulish’ in its purpose was to first appear
in a realm not defined ‘watery’, but as dry land – the earth.
Our current turbulent
world may reflect best all the fluidity and uncertainty of a liquid environment
– particularly in respect to how the very earth itself shakes and cannot hold –
but the fact that we are to inhabit something more substantial than the sea
resonates also with the other great truth we have touched upon – that beneath
the waters, beneath the “storehouses”, beneath all that has been established in
the present, is a true foundation which cannot be moved.
What was set-up,
ordained, or established before the beginning is the true foundation of what is
made – a rock which cannot be shaken or ever removed. This is the truth that
the Psalmist considers in Psalm 93:
“The Lord Reigns.
He is robed in
majesty. He has garbed Himself with strength.
The world is fully
established. It shall not be moved.
Your throne is
everlasting from of old.
You are from
everlasting”.
Here we see a
joining of the idea of the world established to reflect and express something
of the permanence of the reign and authority of God.
This is particularly
noteworthy in the light of what comes next.
“The floods have
lifted up, O Lord.
The waters have
lifted their voice.
Mighty is the
thunder of their noise”.
The waters, we are
told, are roaring in unbounded force, awesome and terrible, but this is not the
beginning (what had preceded this fury), and it is not where the writer ends.
Look further, look
deeper, and see what is true.
“Mightier than
these waves of the sea – The Lord on high, He is mighty!
Holiness befits His
house, for evermore”.
As we look at the
vast swirl of the cycles of creation, we need to see beyond the merely
immediate or even the energetic processes beneath the visual array and perceive
what marvel has truly been placed above and beneath its changing face.
“So says the Lord
God:
‘Behold, I am the
one who has laid as a foundation in Zion
a stone, tried and
tested,
precious, a
cornerstone,
and a sure
foundation.
The refuge of lies
will then be swept away”.
The Prophet
continues –
“The waters will
overwhelm the shelter…
an overwhelming scourge will pass
through,
and you will be beaten down before it”.
(Isaiah 28:16, 17,
18).
Whilst judgement
changes us and our world, such actions occur in reference and regards to what
has been established and cannot be removed – the foundation that Solomon
defined as wisdom, the ‘rock’ or stone Isaiah sees which breaks the world that moves
away from the truth which
it alone provides.
The triumph of
God’s underlying wisdom and majesty is also declared by the Prophet Habakkuk.
As the great waters have filled and pervaded in the seas, he notes, so shall
the day come when the glory of the knowledge of God in like fashion will cover
or fill our world (Habakkuk 2:14).
Creation, then, is
truly an account of the Lord taking what begins so rough and of itself unable
to move beyond its chaos and shaping this into tools which can aid in forging
and shaping something meant to last and endure through countless ages. From the
impenetrable mire of darkness and empty void, God brings about the jewel of the
earth. From the swirling, unceasing turbulence of the waters, He makes land to
appear, and fills the entire ordered realm with a opulent almost unfathomable
array of life, and from amongst this, He makes a distinct creature who is
intended to express and reflect His nature in ruling like the fixed stars that
light the earth – by serving and replenishing what is good.
May the declaration
of the heavens and the earth – the wisdom they speak continually – encourage us
to look deeply into the strength and security of the one who makes and keeps
these things, that, like the Psalmist, we might know the encompassing certainty
of His love and intention towards us.
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