In the last devotion, we started looking at God creating the heavens and earth. This devotional reading finishes looking at Genesis 1: 1 and making the connections.
Nuggets
- God created the heavens — all the galaxies we can see and even not see — and the earth — our planet.
The last devotion went long, so we had to cut it in a strange place. We are finishing up the discussion here.
Let’s jump back in.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Creating Everything theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Celebrating Creation’s Story series
God Created, cont.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1: 1 NLT)
There is another particularly important reason God created the universe, I believe, that we tend to overlook. If God knew we were going to disobey Him and He had the Plan of Salvation waiting when we did (Eph. 1: 4), a major reason for creation was to highlight His Son, Jesus.
God wanted to show us Who Jesus really is. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand” (Jn. 3: 35 ESV).
Jesus gave His life to pay the debt of our sins. Wouldn’t it be sad going through all of eternity not knowing that, not seeing, the extent of His love for us?
This is especially true when we realize that God created us to be holy.
I know. How do we go from God creating us anyway to Him wanting us to be like Him? We do it by following the greatest commandments.
“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mk. 12: 30-32 ESV).
However it was created, God created the universe. God created the plan; Jesus carried out the plan; the Holy Spirit stood by to do whatever He was called to do.
The plan God had included that the universe was to be created in stages — six of them, in fact. It is more the law of progress.
Kellogg addressed this. He wrote,
“It may be taken as a fact, settled by overwhelming scientific evidence, and no less clearly affirmed in Genesis, that the world was not created all at once, and that there was a certain order in which its various parts appeared.”
Resource
That is logical. The dry land hand to be formed before plants and animals could be created to inhabit it.
We also know that not everything was created right away.
“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up — for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground — then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Gen. 2: 5-7 ESV).
God Created the Heavens and the Earth
God created the heavens — all the galaxies we can see and even not see — and the earth — our planet.
The term Heaven can be used many different ways, and the term earth can also be used many different ways.
There is Heaven, where God lives, and there are the heavens of space and our atmosphere. Some may be only visible through high-powered telescopes, but they are there.
The Earth is a big blue ball called a planet, and it is the dirt that makes up the planet.
- “It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in” (Isa. 40: 22 ESV).
- “He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26: 7 ESV).
It doesn’t matter what we are talking about. God created it. He had to have someplace for us to live; so, in His wisdom, God created this beautiful world for us to inhabit.
What I think we should focus on is that God saw something that was in darkness, and He cared enough to want to perfect it. He didn’t want to leave it as it was. He wanted to make it better.
Isn’t that what God wants to do with us? He sees us in our sin, but He doesn’t want to leave us there. He wants to change us until we are more like Him.
Making the Connections #1
Moses didn’t claim that the Book of Genesis was a complete account of how God created the universe. In fact, Genesis really gives us very little insight into how the universe was created.
We know God spoke. We also know the universe was created through His outstretched arm (which Moses said nothing about).
• “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me” (Jer. 27: 5 ESV).
• “Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jer. 32: 17 ESV).
The intent of the book is to honor God and show His power. Most of all, it is to show God as our Creator and Redeemer.
We are given enough to see the majesty of the creation. We are told God spoke and lifted His hand and gave the orders. We have no idea how those orders were carried out.
Maybe everything suddenly appeared before God. Maybe it was a reverse-Avengers snap, where things drifted together over an undetermined period of time.
We don’t need to know the how. We have to focus on the Who.
It is obvious that God created the heavens and earth.
Creation is when the heavens and earth were brought into existence for His glory by the will of the Omnipotent and Omniscient God from materials that did not exist.
Making the Connections #2
In reading about the creation of the universe, we have to take care. We interpret it on our own understanding.
Oh, we are going to do that because we are human.
We have to take care if we want to think we have it all figured out. We may get some things right. We aren’t going to get all things right.
“‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa. 55: 8-9 NLT).
Compared us to God as a steak adult, we are milk babies. Oh, we may – and should – grow our faith out of the milk baby designation.
We are never going to reach God’s level.
We don’t have to conceive it. We have to believe it.
Making the Connections #3
Vaughan reminded us of something very important. He wrote, “He provided a heaven, but He did not provide a hell. That was provided, not for our world at all, but for the devil and his angels.”
Resource
God does not send us to hell. We do that on our own.
Making the Connections #4
In Genesis 1: 1, God established that we would need faith in Him. He doesn’t introduce Himself. He doesn’t explain His actions.
Instead, we are told to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Prov. 3: 5-6 ESV).
It takes the focus off us and puts it onto Him.
Yes, God knew we would mess that up. But that is to be the foundation of our relationship with Him.
Making the Connections #5
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1: 1 NLT)
I have been saying that God created the universe. Well, He did — maybe not here, but maybe here.
Verse 1 is very specific — and very limiting.
The word used in the Oxford Jewish Bible is hashomayim, all lower-case letters, or Shomayim means sky. On the flip side, HaShomayim means the heaven of heavens. Let’s see how this fits in the NLT.
- “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven [Malchut HaShomayim] is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind” (Mt. 13: 47 NLT).
- “And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens [Shomayim], it will fall upon Edom, the nation I have marked for destruction. The sword of the Lord is drenched with blood and covered with fat — with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams prepared for sacrifice. Yes, the Lord will offer a sacrifice in the city of Bozrah. He will make a mighty slaughter in Edom” (Isa. 34: 5-6 NLT).
- “And as the stars of the sky [Tzeva HaShomayim] cannot be counted and the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me” (Jer. 33: 22 NLT).
- “God, the Lord, created the heavens [Boreh HaShomayim]and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And it is he who says” (Isa. 42: 5 NLT).
- “Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven [kingdom under kol HaShomayim] will be given to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will last forever, and all rulers will serve and obey him” (Dan. 7: 27 NLT).
- “Jonah’s answered, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven [Elohei HaShomayim], who made the sea and the land” (Jon. 1: 9 NLT).
Yes, it could be because Moses didn’t know about all the other planets and galaxies. He couldn’t see them, and maybe God didn’t tell him.
But then, when were they created? Did God create them, and in our typical human selfishness, Moses ignored them?
I think this is something for our UNR book — understanding not required.
How Do We Apply This?
- Believe all things are under God’s control because He created all things out of nothing.
- Follow the greatest commandments.
- Be holy as God is holy.
- Acknowledge the vastness of creation.
- Love and worship God because He is our Creator.
Resources
Father God. We praise You as Creator of all there is. We love You with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Please sanctify us so that we are holy as You are. Amen.
What do you think?
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