Creator, Father, King #21

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH today’s verse? Maybe you’ve read it before. Maybe you’ve read it a hundred times.

No matter. Read it again. Its importance cannot be overstated.

These are the words that open Scripture, God’s revelation to mankind about himself and his eternal plan to save his people from their sins. When God’s Spirit inspired the author of Genesis, likely Moses, to begin this amazing collection of what became sixty-six books spanning at least 1,300 years, God could have told Moses to write anything. So it’s instructive that God chose these words, in particular, to begin his great revelation of who he is and what he’s done.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Do you think God knew what he was doing when he inspired those poignant words?

You’d better believe it.

What’s It Mean?

This sentence, in English, is only ten words long. It’s so simple and beautiful, yet it’s powerful and profound.

These words tell us that God existed “in the beginning”—before anything else. They speak to God’s eternal, sovereign, self-existing nature.

They strip away all notions that the universe started through evolution or by random chance.

They repudiate all notions of other gods or belief systems.

In only one sentence—ten words long—Scripture establishes the order of the universe. Genesis 1:1 immediately establishes that there is one God, he has eternally existed, and therefore he has never been created and doesn’t answer to anyone or anything else. It tells us that there’s an intelligent Creator who intricately designed everything we see.

These truths trickle down to everything else in the Bible—and our lives. If these things weren’t true, our existence would look far different.

But they are true! Praise God that before time began, he created all things!

Now What?

As you read Scripture, remember not to read too fast. Even one simple ten-word sentence can have profound spiritual meaning.

Did You Know?

Jesus, the eternal Son of God, was also an active agent in Creation, along with the Father and the Spirit (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2).