Creation

This Sabbath, we go back to the beginning of the Sabbath readings, to the Book of Genesis. This sabbath reading portion is titled B'reshiet, which means "In the beginning", and is also the Hebrew name for this first Book of the Bible. This reading portion specifically covers Genesis chapters 1 through 4. God, Elohim (aleph-tav: same as Alpha and Omega, the title of Christ in Rev. 1:8, 21:6, 22:13), begins to speak His Word in creation. At the opening of Genesis, all that exists, heaven and earth, is shrouded in a thick, deep darkness (hosek/hasak - obscured by darkness, as of Hades, meaning also misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness/surround by darkness, to make darkness). Whatever earth was, it was without form (tou - formless, confusion, waste, nothingness, place of chaos), and void (bou - emptiness). The waste was so great that the darkness extended onto the face (panim - face, presence, location, turn towards, approach) of "the deep" (tehom/hum/hamam - depth, primeval ocean, abyss, grave/make a great noise, destroy, make an uproar, agitate, be in commotion, disturb/destroy, consume, crush, confuse, break). From the meanings of the Hebrew words used, we can see that it was a horror. However, in the middle of this dark void, the Holy Spirit moved upon (rahap - shake, flutter, grow soft, hover, to brood, affected with the feeling of tender love, cherish) the waters (mayim - danger, violence/watersprings, washing, refreshing). Something that was dark and emptied with violence and chaos was going to be transformed into cleansing watersprings of refreshing. (see Gen. 1:1-2). The prophet Jeremiah saw a vision that is similar to the scene we are given in the beginning of Genesis, and his vision can give us a deeper understanding. What he saw in a vision concerned what was coming to the people of God, and caused him to cry out in pain. He wrote: "O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart...Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is plundered....I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; And the heavens, they had no light...I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled...the voice of the daughter of Zion bewailing herself; she spreads her hands saying, 'Woe is me now, for my soul is weary because of murderers!" What was the cause of this desolation, so much like the conditions of Gen. 1:1-2? The LORD spoke to Jeremiah, saying: "For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they have no knowledge...For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken. I have purposed and will not relent, nor will I turn back from it." (Jer. 4:19-31, excerpt). This is a terrible thing. Because of this vision from God, Jeremiah cried out to God's people: "O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?...Your ways and your doings have procured these things for you. This is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches to your heart." (v. 14, 18). Jeremiah cried that the people of God would be cleansed in their hearts. The righteousness of Jesus Christ has been given for our cleansing. Do we seek and desire it? Christ in us is our only hope of glory (Col. 1:24-29). Can the unrepented sins of God's people really affect creation in such a way? Yes. We read from our Sabbath portion tht when Adam listened to other voices instead of the voice of God and sinned, God told him: "Cursed is the ground for your sake..." (Gen. 3:17). When Cain murdered his brother Abel, the LORD told him: "So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you..." (Gen. 4:11-12). The good news, however, from Genesis 1, is that God (Elohim aleph-tav) spoke (amar, amar - speak, answer, command, vow, promised) the words that told the spiritual light (or - bright, clear, flood, light of life, light of face, luminary, glorious, kindle, fire, become light, shine) to be (haya/hava - become, exist/to breathe) (Gen. 1:3). This creation of light marked the first day. A day in Genesis 1, and in Hebrew, does not fade from morning to night, or from light to dark, but the darkness/night becomes light/day. Darkness is ended by the arrival of light. The command for light "to breathe" defined the first (ehad/ahad - first, to unify, to collect/to join oneself together to, ravage with united powers, "sword of three edges") day. It was not a natural light, because the natural light-givers, the sun, the moon, and the stars, were not created until the fourth day (v. 14-19). The good news is that the Light of the World, Jesus the Messiah, came also and brought us out of the kingdom of darkness and into His marvellous light as He saved us from death itself. I want to make note at this point of a special astronomical event called a "ring of fire", a rare kind of solar eclipse, that is occurring around this Sabbath, and pertains to our study of creation. While a "ring of fire" is also associated with the birthing process (see also Rev. 12:1-6, a sign in the heavens: a fiery red dragon seeks to devour a male child who will rule the nations as soon as a woman gives birth to him), in this case, "the ring of fire" refers to the outer ring of light of the sun that is expected to be visible during the rare annular solar eclipse, when the moon completely darkens the sun. At the same time, NASA intends to launch three rockets during the annular eclipse in order to study the effect of the event on the ionosphere. The designer of this NASA study project, Dr. Aroh Barjata, said that he deliberately chose the name APEP for the project, the name of an Egyptian demon god, because this god was an enemy of the Egyptian sun deity. This demon, APEP, was/is a god of darkness and chaos (see Gen. 1 above), that seeks to devour light, order and truth. This Egyptian demon god is depicted as a giant serpent, and was also called Evil Dragon and Lord of Chaos. In mythology, this demon god "was believed to have existed from the beginning of time in the waters of primeval chaos" (see also Gen. 1:2). It was thought that the demon inhabited the underworld as well, and was therefore also called "an Eater of Souls". This NASA study project is flying into the heavens under the name of this demon destroyer of light. Man often chooses and installs darkness and chaos, rather than light and truth. Many might view these Egyptian gods and goddesses as pure mythology, but the LORD does not view them in that way: "For I will pass through the land of Egypt, nd will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD." (Ex. 12:12). So man, by the spiritual authority which God has given him, will, this B'reshiet Sabbath, willfully re-establish the name of this demon god in the heavens through this mission. This is no small matter, and may hold great prophetic significance in the time we are living, in view of the verses from Rev. 12 and the grave prophetic events which are about to break out on the earth. We read in Genesis 1 that God, Elohim aleph-tav, spoke light into the darkness, established an ordered creation out of the chaos that existed, set divisions and boundaries between the elements (Gen. 1:4-5, 6-9), and spoke life into every level of creation: in the air, on the land, and in the seas (Gen. 1:20-25). Eventually He spoke and created man with His hands, whom He created in His own form and image (Gen. 1:26-28). John 1:1-5, also records the role of the spoken Word of God, which is Christ, as light, and life. Man may act as an accessory to the works of this demon of darkness, APEP, but God's Word of light, order, and truth will stand. God's people must do all that God has ordained for them to do in order to be the children of light and day, rather than the children of darkness and night (see 1 Thess. 5:5-6). It is a further injustice, it seems to me, that man named the heavenly bodies, the planets, which God hung in space in perfect gravitational balance and distance from each other, after Roman and Greek (Uranus) gods and goddesses. God, Elohim aleph-tav, also specifically named our planet ehretz in Hebrew (Gen. 1:10), which is translated in our Bibles into the old Anglo-Saxon word, Ertha, or "earth". The Hebrew name for our planet, ehretz, specifically given by God, is very important because of the pictographic meanings of the individual Hebrew letters of the word. The letters aleph, reysh, and tsadde can mean: "the authority of the Lord (Adonai), who is the Highest, pulls towards the desired destination of the harvest of the righteous". We sometimes consider creation a completed work of God from the very distant past, but the work is ongoing, not ended. The other Sabbath reading portions for this week all testify to God's continuing absolute authority over all of creation, from the time and place of its beginning, to the appearance of the new creation to come. God's Word still holds His creation together in the order that He ordained it. Isaiah wrote that this same ultimate and complete authority that we see in creation (Isa. 42:5), is the same authority that will establish other things: "Behold! My Servant...My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him...He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail..." (v. 1-4). "...give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house...I have held My peace a long time...Now I will cry like a woman in labor...I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight..." (v. 6-16, excerpt). The same creative authority sent His Servant, the Messiah, to free man from the darkness. In David's psalm written about God's perfect foreknowledge and creation, both of David and man in general, he says of His God: "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 alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb...I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are Your works...When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth...And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." (Ps. 139:11-15). The same God of the immense creation, is the same God that wonderfully and miraculously formed each one of us. The same God that called the chaos into order, is the same God who meticulously writes each of our days in His book. His creative power and authority is extended to the most personal, intimate knowledge of, and attention to, each one of us. How humbling, yet how enriching! As we saw from examples above, however, man often fails to view God with the humility that should result from the knowledge of this truth, which David considered too wonderful for him to attain. Even a righteous man (Job 1:8) can fall into the temptation offered to his pride and self-absorption (Job 29:1=25, 30:1). We see this in our next reading portion from this Sabbath, as God confronted an embittered Job with the sovereign power and authority that is seen in His creative work. The LORD asked Job: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?... Who determined its measurements?...Or who shut in the seas with doors?...When I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; When I said...'Here your proud waves must stop!'...And caused the dawn/dayspring (sahar - morning, dawn, light, whence riseth, the end of dark night; seek early, diligently seek for, painstakingly search for, break forth as light; see also Lk. 1:76-79)) to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?...Have you walked in search of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this." (Job 38, excerpt). When man becomes too proud in their "knowledge" to bow before the Great Creator, we also would do well to consider these questions that the LORD asked His beloved Job. In these days when darkness, terror, and chaos have been embraced and promoted by man, it is more important than ever to learn the lessons of B'reshiet, the beginning work and authority of God, Elohim aleph-tav, and His Aleph-Tav Son: "He (the Son, Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." (Col. 1:15-18). If you would like to learn more about our Creator and King, you can join in my prayer: "Father of all creation, and Father of my life, I come before You reminded of Your immense knowledge and power, as well as the love by which You brought order to destructive chaos, light into the oppressive darkness, and life and man into the earth by the Word of Your mouth. I exalt and magnify YOU, and Your Son, our Salvation, over all things visible and invisible. What can compare to Your greatness? It is too wonderful for me! You order and care for my life with the same lovingkindness. Fill me with the Holy Spirit, who teaches me about You and Your Son of Light and Truth. I ask for these things in the name of Jesus. AMEN."