GENESIS ONE

Father, in the name of Jesus Christ I thank You for Your Word, and for the treasures contained in it. I thank You for this opportunity to reflect on it and glean the secrets to victory. Amen.

Today’s Reflection begins, appropriately enough, "in the beginning". Let’s dig right in and turn to the first chapter of the first Book of the bible: Genesis, chapter one:

          In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I love that verse. What a way for God to begin His self-revelation. It’s sop simple, and yet it contains so much.

For instance, the "God" in Hebrew is "Elohim". The "i-m" ending on that is something like our "s" in English. It indicates a plurality, and some authorities says it means a plurality of at least three. And yet, everyone, including our Jewish friends...and the cults who deny the Trinity, insist on translating "Elohim" as "God", singular.

This verse also tells us something about the creation. "In the beginning" indicates time. "The heavens" can also be translated "Stretched-out-expanses", or "space". "Earth" is "the substance from which things are formed", or "matter". The creation consists of space, time and matter. Without any one of those dimensions it ceases to be what it is. So the physical universe is a trinity, like its Maker. So the next time the cultists knock on our doors and tell us the tri-unity of God is foolish and unscientific, we will know that they’re denying the very reality they live in.

Let’s read on in Genesis one. Verse 2 says:

         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.

I’ll skip over all the controversy about what "without form, and void" means. There’s a mention of "darkness" here, which indicates that spiritual warfare was already going on. In this context the Spirit of God hovers, like a bird over her eggs, nurturing and protecting the baby earth.

His behavior here is similar to another significant occasion. When Jesus Himself submitted to the Baptism of John, the Holy Spirit did the same thing for Him. It’s recorded in several places in the New Testament. I’ll read from Matthew, chapter 3:

1. Then Jesus, when He was baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

By submitting to baptism, Jesus was publicly committing Himself to the death and resurrection that would purchase redemption for the human race. At that time, and a t the creation, the Spirit of God manifested Himself in the gentle and loving image of a bird.

The Genesis passage goes on:

1. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

   The very first recorded words that God spoke: "let there be light."

   When darkness was on the face of the deep, God said, "Let there be light". When darkness threatens our lives, God’s answer is still His Word and His Light.

   I ought to point out that physical light and darkness don’t come into the picture until the fourth day of creation, verses 14 through 19 of Genesis one. So this passage is about spiritual, rather than physical, realities.

   Verse 4 expands on this account:

2. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

   The first thing God spoke into existence was light. The first thing He did with that light was divide it rom the darkness.

   From that moment to this, light and darkness have been mutually exclusive. They cannot co-exist. Wherever light is introduced, the darkness must leave. It cannot return until the light is removed. There’s an exception to this, in a way, but I’ll come back to that later.

   First, I’d like to look at another passage of Scripture. This one is very similar to the Genesis verses, although it was written thousands of years later. It’s in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, and it introduces Someone called the Word, and it says:

3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
4. He was in the beginning with God.

   The identity of this One called the Word is fine-tuned in verse 14:

5. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

   And if anyone is stubborn enough to remain unconvinced at this point, verse 17 wraps it up:

6. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

   So the Word, who was with God, and yet was God Himself, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christwho became flesh, full of grace and truth.

   Back in the beginning of the chapter, we see this:

7. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
8. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
9. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Once again we have light, and once again we have this antipathy between light and darkness.

The light shines into the darkness. The word for "comprehend" in verse 5 can also be "overpower". So light and darkness are in conflict, and light is ultimately the winner.

I’d like to read both passages, from Genesis and John, alternately. I think we’ll get a better idea of how parallel they really are.

• In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
• * In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.                        
• * He was in the beginning with God.
• 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.
• All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
• Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
• In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
• And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
• And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

So we have two different sources in God’s Word confirming that light and darkness have been incompatible since creation.

This brings me to the exception, though it doesn’t really qualify.

Christians, it seems, are always trying to combine light and darkness.

Paul touches this theme in First Corinthians, chapter six:

1. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

   Light and darkness. Compromising relationships.

   Jesus warned us about this. Notice what He says in Matthew, chapter six:

22.  The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, you whole body will be full of light.

23.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24.  No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Light and darkness. Serving two masters. Trying to please God and my selfishness at the same time.

There are so many things in the Body of Christ that should not be there, but we’ve brought them in by our attempts to mingle light with darkness. It doesn’t work. It results only in turmoil and strife.

Let’s take a few minutes today to let God show us these areas in our lives. Do we have selfish goals? Is there occult involvement in our lives? Are we addicted to amoral music or television programs?

And, as we allow God’s light to shine into our hearts and lives, let’s determine that we won’t be like the people Jesus refers to in John 3:

19.  "And this is the condemnation, that light has come into                 the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."