"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
The first five books of the Christian bible; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, are known to the Jewish people as the Torah, or the books that God gave to Moses. To christians, they are the first five books of the Old Testament.
In the first book, Genesis, the first chapter, we learn that God is the author of all creation.
The heavens and the earth: 1-2
Light: 4-5
Firmament or heaven: 6-8
Dry land and Seas: 9-10
Grasses, herb, and trees: 11-13
Stars and seasons: 14-15
Sun and moon: 16-19
Sea creatures and winged creatures: 20-23
Cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth: 24-25
And finally man:
26-27: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
You might be asking yourself, "Who is *Us*?" Let US make man in OUR image.......
Here is the first revelation of the triune God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
Elohim, God the Father created the heavens and the earth.
By verse two, we find God the Spirit present at creation:
"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."
If we read only the first chapter of Genesis, we find no direct evidence that God the Son, Yeshua, is present. Yet, it is revealed to us later:
In John's wonderful gospel:
1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
1:10: He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
And in Colossians:
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
From Matthew Henry's complete commentary:
It should seem as if this were the work which he longed to be at; as if he had said, "Having at last settled the preliminaries, let us now apply ourselves to the business, Let us make man.’’ Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth, must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds. And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make him, but is pleased so to express himself as if he called a council to consider of the making of him: Let us make man. The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it and concur in it, because man, when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Into that great name we are, with good reason, baptized, for to that great name we owe our being.
All things come to us from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.
How does this seem?
Jesus is the Word (see John, ch 1) eternally thought/uttered by the Father. And, as you point out, everything was created through/in Him.
So perhaps He is alluded to when Genesis 1:3 says that "God said", ie that He spoke the Word?
Posted by: Felix | August 16, 2004 at 02:37 AM