And there was evening and there was morning and there was light and we could all see. I want to begin this series in Genesis at the beginning of the book, Genesis 1-1. And in thinking about this passage and really thinking about the whole of the book of Genesis, we're obviously thinking about beginnings. We're thinking about first things. I had a little fun this last week. I paid attention to bumper stickers. Now some of them obviously want to pay too much attention to it because a lot of them are pretty expensive, but bumper stickers are pretty interesting. And what I found surprising is I thought about bumper stickers this last week. What I found surprising about bumper stickers is that they reveal that people believe things and that they care about things. Here are some of my favorites. This is a great one. Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. I get a charge out of that. I don't know how you practice randomness, but apparently somebody thinks that it's possible to do that and they care enough about that to put a bumper sticker on their car. Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. Here's another one. Visualize world peace. And then of course the corollary to that is visualize world peace. Obviously somebody thinks that visualizing world peace is a significant thing to care about. And obviously somebody else thinks that visualizing world peace is rather ludicrous. So they would rather visualize world peace. People care about things. These bumper stickers care about all kinds of different kinds of things. I remember one from several years ago, the moral majority is neither. And then the great one that I saw up in North Florida is they call it tourist season. Why can't we shoot them? Bumper stickers. And clearly people believe some things. If you look at bumper stickers they believe some things are right, some things are wrong, some things ought to be cared about and they put those bumper stickers on their cars because they think that you and I ought to care about those things as well. People care about things. People can't avoid caring about things. People can't avoid having convictions about things, having beliefs about things. But the question that I have to ask myself, and it frankly is a question that I wrestled with nearly 30 years ago, the question why should anybody care about anything? My dog doesn't care about much. She cares about getting her dinner at five o'clock, but she doesn't care that we put the food in a plastic bowl and she eats it on the laundry room floor and she's not particularly concerned it doesn't seem about the packaging that the food comes in. Cars don't seem to care about things, but human beings do care about things. And the question is why do we care about things? What accounts for the fact that human beings have beliefs, have convictions and do care about things? What is adequate? What is big enough to explain how we behave as human beings? Now the book of Genesis, as I'm sure you are aware, provides answers to that question and a whole lot of other questions. Like the questions that haunt people, at some point in the course of their lives, the questions who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going? Is there purpose to my life? Is there meaning to human existence? What is big enough? What is adequate enough to answer those questions? So you come to Genesis with those kinds of questions as background, before looking at Genesis and before examining Genesis to find the answers that I think are there, I'm more persuaded today than ever before that the answers are in the book of Genesis to these kinds of questions. So before finding those answers, there's a word of caution that has to be offered. And that is this. The approach that we take to the book of Genesis is critical. The manner in which we approach the study of Genesis is critical. I want you to remember that the context of the book of Genesis, there are all these very large questions that loom large for all of us virtually every day of our lives. And you come to the book of Genesis because you're persuaded, I'm persuaded that there are answers to those questions. But the way that we approach the book of Genesis is awfully important and we have to remember the context. You have to remember that the context of the book of Genesis is the Exodus. The historical context of the book of Genesis is the Exodus. This word, this revelation, this book is given to a particular people at a particular place in particular time. And the particular circumstances are that they have been delivered from bondage in Egypt and they are headed to the Promised Land and they are currently in a trackless waste. They are currently in a wilderness. And behind them are Pharaoh's armies, the enemies of Egypt. And in front of them are the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Jebusites and the Parasites and all other kinds ofites. All kinds of people who will resist their occupying of the Promised Land, the Holy Land. The Land of God says that he's going to give to them. And in the midst of all of that, they find themselves in a wilderness. And they have to be provided for supernaturally because it is a trackless waste. Here's the point, when you come to the book of Genesis and you forget the context, there is the temptation to ask questions of the book of Genesis, that the book of Genesis is not interested in answering because what is behind these circumstances is a pastoral concern for the people who find themselves between Egypt and Canaan in this trackless waste. This is a word that is spoken to Israel by God and God is concerned for his people. He's concerned for the well-being of his people. There is a theology in Genesis, there is a theology in the whole of the Bible. There is a world view in Genesis, a world view in the whole of the Bible. There is a theory of knowledge in the book of Genesis. There is much said about origins and the creation of all things. But what stands behind all of that is a God who cares for his people and is concerned to comfort and encourage and lead and guide and direct his people in the midst of their wilderness wandering. Look at what God says to his people in Exodus 19. This is in the course of their deliverance from Egypt. And while they're on their way to Canaan, verse 3 of chapter 19, Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, this you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you up on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me. Above all people, for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. You see, the thing that God wants to make known to his people about everything else is that they are the objects of his redeeming love. They are the objects of his concern. And he has acted in their behalf in order to bring them to himself, that he might went them to himself, that he might be their God and that they might be his people. Listen to what the psalmist says, Psalm 95, the psalmist we use as a call to worship frequently in this church. Verse 6 and 7, O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. You see, the creation is always in view, but there is more in view than just the creation. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. And we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand, with the people of his pasture, with the sheep of his hand. All of this is language of intimacy, commonplace. The concern that stands behind this revelation, this self-disclosure, what stands behind the book of Genesis, is God who loves his people and who is desperately concerned for their well-being. And it doesn't matter who we are, young old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, established and secure in the faith, troubled and doubting about things, the concern is the same, it is a pastoral concern. So please understand, when we come to the book of Genesis, that God himself is not interested in satisfying our idle curiosity, is not interested in speculation, is interested in encouraging and comforting his people. And that's the right approach to see of Genesis, is understanding that God, who is the shepherd of his sheep, is concerned to shepherd his sheep and pasture his sheep. And he does that through his wounds. Now what do we meet with when we come to Genesis? Well, we're confronted immediately in chapter 1, verse 1, with the Bible's view of time and space. We're confronted with the Bible's view of the material world, the things that we see, the things that we taste, the things that we touch, the things that we imagine, the things that we think about. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the heavens and the earth are understood to be things visible and invisible. That's how the interpreters have understood that phrase across the centuries, not just the literal physical heavens and the literal material earth. But things visible and invisible, as we say, when we say the nice thing, create, I believe in God, the creator of all things visible and invisible. And what we understand about all things visible and invisible is that they are not eternal. Matter is not eternal. Time is not eternal. Space is not eternal. All of these things are created. And if you could get on the time machine and go back in time on the time machine from this moment following backwards the succession of moments far enough. If you were to go backwards from one moment to the next, you would come to the time before in the beginning, if you could say it that way. You would come to the time when there is no time, when there is simply God who exists outside of time and beyond space and beyond materiality. You're confronted immediately in Genesis 1-1, with how the Bible views this world around us. Any of us who are parents, I would suspect any of us who are parents, have answered these questions from our children. Where did I come from? Where am I? Where did I come from? And after you get past the biological stuff and the real philosophical stuff kicks in, you know that your child is asking an ultimate kind of question. Where did I come from? And the ultimate answer is that you were created by God. That you're not just the product of the convergence of certain circumstances, resulting in a mother and a father who marry and then have children. The answer to the question, where did I come from is that I come ultimately from God. And then the question the child always asks is, where did God come from? And the answer is God didn't come from anything. God simply exists. He simply is. He simply has the power within himself to exist. He has the ability to exist. That's what his name suggests. The name that was revealed in Moses in Exodus 3. It's a difficult word to translate. It comes from the verb to be. But it's an unusual form. And sometimes it's translated, I am what I am. Sometimes it's translated, I will be what I will be. But the point to the name and the point to the flame that is in the bush that is not consumed. The point to both is that God depends upon nothing else for his own existence. The flame in the bush does not depend upon the bush for its existence. This is something that happens out in a wilderness. Presumably that bush is dry and combustible. It is easily ignited. But the fire that is in the bush does not depend upon the bush. The bush continues to exist and the flame exists even of itself. What stands behind the creation of all things, whether it is my child, or the vast and immense space that I look upon on a clear night? What stands behind all of it? A self-existing God who has the power in and of himself to be and by that same power speaks all things into existence. That's what you're confronted with when you come to Genesis 1. The time, space, materiality are not eternal, but they are created and God, the self-existent God, stands behind the creation. There's more that you find. There's more that you see when you come to Genesis 1.1. It isn't just that there is a God who stands behind the universe who is powerful. There's an unusual form that you find in Genesis 1.1 and you find it actually throughout the Bible. And that is the word for God. It is a plural term. The basic root word for God in these languages, in Hebrew and Arabic, is L. L is God, but this form is a plural form. L.O.Heme, and the plural form is connected to a singular verb. If the plural form stands alone, then you translate it legitimately. God's, but the word is in connection with a singular verb. And that again is a rather striking thing. And how do we understand that? How do we understand this plural form? When by itself it can be translated God's, but when connected to a singular verb you translate it, God. One subject, not many. Now this is what the exegetes and the theologians refer to as the plural of majesty or the plural of potentiality. God not in a singular sense, but God in a superlative sense. God in an intensified sense. God who is greater than our conceptions of him. God who cannot be reduced to a single word. God who cannot be compassed by our language. The authors of scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit come up with these unusual forms to convey the notion that God is exceedingly greater than our greatest conceptions of him. Some people wonder is they work with this phrase if there isn't maybe an intimation of the plurality of persons in the Godhead. This is historic Orthodox Christian teaching that God exists as three persons in one God. And as you look through the rest of Genesis 1, you do see those intimations of the plurality of persons in the Godhead. Genesis 1, 1, and 2 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The breath of God, the wind of God, the spirit of God. Something that emanates from God but is distinct from him. Something that clearly has the attributes of divinity, the attributes of God but is distinct from him. And then as you go through the rest of this first chapter, there is the striking use of the speech of God. God said let there be light and there was light. God separated the light from the darkness and he called the light day and the darkness night. Throughout this first chapter, God is speaking and describing and his word is in place. And when you come to the New Testament and John 1, John and his prologue says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God in proximity to God and the word was God, distinct from him, yet in proximity to him. And John's great concern in his gospel is to demonstrate that this word who became flesh was indeed the incarnate God, God the Son. As you make your way again through the rest of the first chapter of Genesis, you come to Genesis 1,26. God says let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And again, some people see in that hints of the plurality of persons in the Godhead that God exists multi-personally. The Bible teaches that there are multiple persons in the Godhead and that is beyond dispute. When you look at John chapter 17, Jesus prays to the Father and asks the Father now to restore him, Jesus, to the glory which he had with him before the worlds were. In verse 24 of that same chapter, Jesus, not reminding the Father, but simply expressing what is true. Says to the Father, you loved me before the worlds were. You loved me before the foundation of the world. Now, what's the significance of all of this? What kind of folks, I think it's extraordinarily significant for us and for this culture in which we live. Because you see, this culture in which we live is fully persuaded that eternal things are time and space and matter. This cultural moment in which we find ourselves is perfectly satisfied, it seems, with removing God from the equation. But if you remove God from the equation and all you have is time and space and matter and then randomness, you are left in an impersonal world with personal answers and individual answers to the ultimate questions that people labor. But you see the Bible offers a different kind of an answer. The Bible says that there is something more to this universe than what we see or feel or experience or imagine. There is a great other who stands behind the universe and he is its creator and author. And what is more, he is personal. He is personal. What existed before in the beginning? God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and among the three persons of the Trinity has Jesus recognizes and praise and thanks God for in John 17, there is perfect love among the members of the Trinity. The Father has love for the Son, the Son has love for the Father, the Father and the Son together are wed to the Spirit. The Father and the Son and the Spirit has one God, obviously can conceive, can think, can plan and can execute their purposes. So you ask the question, why is it that people care about things? Why is it that people have convictions and passions? Why is it that they can't escape what Francis Shafel would call their own manishness? Why is it that we can't escape who we are? Why is it that things like alone and hate are realities? Courage and cowardice are realities? Why is it that we have longings for beauty and for peace and for love and affection? Why is it that we stand contented and amazed at the birth of a child or the wonder of a sonson? Why is it that we are drawn to those things and we are revolted and withdraw from a natural disaster that strikes havoc and fear upon us and in our hearts because there is a personal God who stands behind the universe, who himself loves, who himself is drawn to these things, who himself withdraws from and revolts against anything and everything that is untrue or inconsistent with his own being and character. How do you account for the existence of these things in us, passions and loves and desires and loans? You account for them because they existed before we did. They existed in the plurality of the persons of the Godhead. And there's another way to think about this phrase, Elohim and that is that it reflects or represents not only the plurality of persons but a plentitude of powers, a plentitude of powers, a formless of powers and overflowing of powers. Read Psalm 139, the song of David, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from afar. You comprehend my path. That is to say, you know my path. Every footstep of it, every detail of every footstep of my path. You comprehend it from afar. You're acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me behind and before you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning, that is if I rise at sunset and fly at the speed of light, travel at the speed of light. If I catch the wings of the dawn and travel to some distant place at that rate of speed, I get there and I find you are there ahead of me. You are already there.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hands shall lead me. Your right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day the darkness and the light are both a light to you. What is David reflecting upon? He is reflecting upon the greatness of God, the majesty of God, the plentitude of the powers of God, that he is omniscient, that he knows all things. The knowledge of God is an interesting thing to contemplate. What does it mean when we say that God knows all things? Well, we mean by that that God knows all things as they exist and as they exist in all of their potentialialities, in all of their actual and potential relationships. This afternoon just for kicks. I'd use the illustration before it's five and three or four years, but this afternoon just for kicks, go home, get a shovel out of the garage, go to the backyard, put that shovel in the ground, and turn over a shovelful of dirt, and just notice all of the things that are crawling around in it, worms and bugs, and understand that the knowledge of God means that God knows all of those ants and all of those earthworms in all of their actual and in all of their potential relationships, and that that is just one shovelful of dirt in the midst of this vast, vast universe, and that shovelful of dirt has to do with inconsequential things, not planets that spin on their axes, not planets that circle suns, that cover millions and tens of millions and billions of miles.
The wonder David stands in all. We are so enamored of our modern technologies. We think it is so cool that we can talk to one another through computers. It is child's play compared with what God knows. And that is just one of his powers, what he knows. He is present everywhere, not only knows everything, and he's not only present everywhere, but he is almighty. He possesses all power, and it is by his power that you have breathed the breaths that you have taken since you came into this room and every day of your life. And if God were to withdraw his power from any one of us or from all of us, from you in a second, vanish, discipline, heber tells us that God upholds all the things by the word of this power. What is Elohim? He is this multi-personal God who exists in eternity, who is filled with this plentitude of power. What is your conception of God? You read something for you. This is a quotation taken from the McClintock strong cyclopedia of biblical, theological, and decreasing asical literature. This is from an article on God written by Adam Clark. Way back at the end of the 19th century, over a hundred years ago, in the grand and carefully phrased old words of Adam Clark, God is, quote, the eternal, independent, and self-existent being, the being whose purposes and actions spring from himself without foreign motive or influence. He who is absolute indominium, the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences, infinitely perfect, and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing he has made, illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his motive existence, and indescribable in his essence, known fully only by himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself, in a word a being who from his infinite wisdom cannot err or be deceived, and from his infinite goodness can do nothing but what is eternally just and right and kind explanation. Would you prefer to have for your own existence and for the existence of all things visible and indescribable? What gives you greater comfort that you are a self-authenticating, self-actualizing being who in the midst of the impersonal forces of time and chance in the context of space and materiality can stand against the absurdity of life as a superman and say, I am until someone's stronger than you says, no, I am. And because of that superior strength, it wipes you out. How would you prefer to live in a universe created, ordered, controlled by that God who in all of his deities is infinitely good, just and kind, and wherever there is a lack of goodness or a lack of justice or a lack of kindness, his sense of justice, his sense of goodness, in due course will overturn every injustice and unkindness ever seen, ever heard, ever experienced.
Where would you rather live in whose universe? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, this is not theoretical knowledge, this is not abstract knowledge, this is a communication that comes from a personal God who is really there to a people he loves, a specific people in real places, a trackless waste, surrounded by enemies, Pharaoh behind them, the gods of the Amorites before them, and God in saying these things to Israel says, I have created all things, I have control and authority over all things, I am the God of the universe and that includes Pharaoh and that includes the Amorites. I made them, I control them, they cannot harm you. What are the Pharaohs in your life? Where are the Amorites? Where are the enemies? Where is the trackless waste in your experience? The God of heaven and earth who spoke these words of comfort to Israel speaks the same words of comfort to you. It's a wonderful passage in Jeremiah. Lots of wonderful passages in Jeremiah, but in Jeremiah 10, God through Jeremiah speaks these words to Israel that has lost sight of the greatness and glory of the one true God. Everyone is dull-hearted. It's dull-hearted. What a grand phrase. Not without knowledge. Not unintelligent, but dull-hearted. Everyone is dull-hearted without knowledge. Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image or his molded image is falsehood and there is no breath in them. They are futile, the work of errors. In the time of their punishment, they shall perish, but the portion of Jacob and you are Jacob. Your portion, the portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the maker of all things and Israel. You are Israel. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The Lord of Hosts is his name.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Words of comfort, words of encouragement, words with a pastoral concern behind them, words addressed to people who find themselves in a trackless waste, but they need not be afraid, but the God of heaven and earth is their God. Let's pray together. Father, thank you that you have not remained distant and you are not detached from us, but you are desperately interested in us in concern for us. And I thank you that you've spoken and I thank you that we may look beyond the circumstances of our lives, the enemies that surround us and made with reverence and thankful and bow before you, the one who has created us and all things. I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have no competition. I thank you that you love your people and your children, your people and this would come to this table. I pray that this table would be for a soul of great reminder of that love. Now, Lord, here, our praise is together we confess our sins.