Last week, in lesson 2, we looked at Yeshua as being from the beginning, and, that He was actually Creator- that nothing was made that wasn’t made by, and through, Him.
There is nothing made that does not in some way reveal the Truth of G-d in LIGHT. The nature of light is to reveal. Yeshua is the light of G-d, the radiance of His Glory. He is the revelation of the Nature of G-d to the world.
These first verses of the Torah are particularly relevant for the groundwork of the study of Torah. The first time I taught Genesis, many years ago, there was so much that could be said, and now, after learning a little more that could be said, I’m finding myself doing just that- saying more. I hope you will bear with me a little as I talk about the things that have meaning for me in these first verses of the Bible. This lesson 3 in a way serves as an outline for lesson 4. There is just too much to include it all in one reading.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3, “we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant (puffs up), but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.”
As we study the Bible, lets remember that the reason for study is not only to become knowledgeable, but to BE worshipers. We study because we love. Just as G-d created in love, and desire, for fellowship with us, so we study, and seek, and learn, for fellowship with Him, in return. Let us meet Him where He is, and as He is, as our dearest friend who is closer to us than a brother. He is a blessed wonderful heavenly Father who so loves us, He has done so much for us. May our time in His Word be a time of fellowship with Him, as if we are walking with Him, in the cool of the day, in a beautiful garden created just for this purpose. Amein.
In this lesson 3, we will look at all things that are made are made for the purpose of revelation- the way things are made are purposed, in their design, to reveal truth. We’ve already touched on this by commenting on the material made in darkness to show that G-d is not material. Now we will turn our attention to creation itself as a revelation of Yeshua, Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life- THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!
Genesis 1:2-5 speaks of the establishing of G-ds’ order in the universe, not just physical, but His Spiritual order coming into this created universe, which is the opposite of chaos. It is the same as saying He brings something out of nothing and makes that new ‘something’ function in its proper place, in its proper time. Also, it is the substance of Faith ( we will have a closer look at this in later lessons). In these verses we see the entrance of physical light, as in science, and spiritual light, as in His Mercy revealed, as in the Son.
Darkness, as we looked at in lesson one, is the indication of the absence of G-d in the material creation. God is not material. He made all things, but He IS NOT creation. G-d is light, and His Word is Light. Let me add here, how the world needs the Torah to know G-d. How we have suffered in this world without the TRUTH of the knowledge of G-d as found in the Torah. My friends, the New Testament IS OF the Torah, in that, the New Testament is ALL ABOUT the Torah. It is easy to lose sight of this, specially today, where there are so many factions being formed saying, I am of so and so, and I of so and so. The New Testament is not a book that stands alone, it has a foundation, and that foundation is the Torah. Without the foundation that Yeshua quoted from as HIS foundation, and His PURPOSE to fulfill, we have NOTHING. His fulfilling, and BEING the Torah is everything to us. It is a good thing to come to know this intimately.
We must keep in mind as we do these studies, that the New Testament is the LIVING of the Torah, or, LIFE FROM the Torah. It shows the DOING of the Torah, the KEEPING of the Torah. Some, today, are trying to KEEP the Torah, and claim a believe in Yeshua, yet do not see the connection of the New Testament as the actual keeping of the Torah. There is no other way to look at it that will lead to the TRUTH, the New Testament is the keeping of the Torah. May I be so bold as to say it is utter foolishness to think to dismiss the Torah in one’s life while CLAIMING to follow Jesus! On the other hand, I believe one can follow, or attempt to follow Torah and be as ignorant of the Will of G-d if he dismisses Yeshua as Messiah, as one who claims to follow Yeshua and dismisses the Torah. They are united, Torah and Yeshua, you must have one with the other, in a unity, as ONE, to walk in the Garden with G-d as we will see in coming lessons. There is a correlation with these things I just mentioned and our present studies that will become evident to the reader as we continue on.
2 “And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”
Darkness was over a formless mass. Whether the mass was in the shape of a globe at this point, is not clear, it was formless according to this verse, and void. What is void? I suggest it is a lack of solid matter, nothing to stand on, nothing to plant on, no sign of foundation yet. The word used here suggests a waste, as in worthless for any use in its present state. The earth at this point was basically a sort of lay out of plasma, covered in thick darkness. The wonder is, also, that it is held together, or held up, by the power of G-d. Hebrews 1:3 says, “and UPHOLDING all things by the word of his power”. The universe is upheld by the power of YHVH, throughout all eternity. This cannot change because all of created existence will always be DEPENDANT of G-d FOR existence. His upholding is a continual thing. He holds things together in FORM continually. Without His UPHOLDING, things would be not just chaos, but none existent. When He began to create, although, as some think of randomness in the process as what is referred to the big bang theory, there was order even in the chaos of the universe being spread out like a canopy. I mentioned fractals in lesson 2, and though there is a randomness in human terms, G-d is always in control, even in randomness. And He uses “chaos” for His purposes, and brings to Life what is, in human terms, a waste. In G-d, there is no chaos, in man, there is, because of the SHADOWS that occur in man. Shadow suggests a potential for chaos, because there is a mixture involved. The mixture is made of light and dark. In G-d, there is no darkness, only light. (please refer to an article I wrote on Holiness on another Bond Servant Ministries page, I talk about this mixture.
http://bondservantmark.wordpress.com/2009/05/page/2/
The universe was formed in a physical mixture made in the beginning as one thing, in that there was no separation, all was combined as in one small little dot created and held in the palm of G-d. Physical light did not exist in physical terms at this point because there was no source as yet to be formed complete to be manifested in. All the universe was compressed into a ONE. This will be of significance later on.
G-d is not His creation, but He is able to make His creation BEAR light, for His purposes of revelation. G-d desires to MAKE HIMSELF KNOWN This mixture of light and dark is indeed what chaos is. Water is like chaos, in that there is this mixture of light and dark. It is interesting to note the Hebrew letter for chaos is also used for water, Mem. Formless and void can be a description of water. We will also look at this a little closer a little later on.
Clay is nothing more than dust of the universe unless it has moisture. It’s the moisture that gives clay its ability to be formed. It is moisture that gives clay its initial cohesiveness. It is this moisture (the amount, no more or no less) now seen on the earth that separates it from all other planets. Water was created in the universe for the sole purpose of creating life and giving it form- holding it together. The Spirit of G-d upon the deep/water of the earth is giving it a form as we will see.
Water does not bring the life on its own, it enables dust to be formed into something. G-d created, The Breath of G-d, the Word, brought life. These things happening in the physical are REVELATION from the foundation of the earth. In the next verse we’ll see the Holy Spirit active. Next week we’ll talk about the Spiritual side of these verses.
Yeshua is the Living Word, He told His disciples to wait! for the comforter to come, as tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit is HE who will teach you all things, things about what? Or who? All things about the Word. The Spirit FORMS within man the image of G-d, this is a work of water and clay, spirit and soul, to BET (first Hebrew letter in the Torah), have a dwelling place with our Creator. It is no coincidence that the Holy Spirit, who appears as tongues of fire, also appears in Genesis 1:2, and the creation of light with the separation of light and darkness. It is understandable that He is described in this way, as FIRE. Fire is in a real sense, the FIRST light in the universe, in the primordial lava of the forming foundation of the earth. We see the Word, Yeshua, and we see the Holy Spirit of fire AND water all represented here in the creation.
In the beginning of G-d creating the universe- the elements, what makes up the universe, were so compressed into this little dot that when the voice of G-d said, NOW, and moving so fast (I actually believe in A big bang, but not a theory, I believe it as a creative act of G-d. I believe the big BANG was the voice of G-d saying something like, NOW!) As the universe expanded the particles gradually began to cool, under the guidance of YHVY, and as the wind (Spirit) of G-d moved across the deep, this process took place, and in the plasma of earth, as the universe slowed and cooled sufficiently from the initial NOW, the electrons bound around protons, and formed atoms, and there was light. Light was created at the foundation of the earth. The light, in physical terms, separated from the darkness. It was a physical phenomena in G-ds amazing WORK of creation. It was the moment physical LIGHT in this universe was MADE, or distinguished. G-d created LIGHT, in the physical universe. We are reading about it in these verses. The stars, and even our sun, are formed at this moment… at least, this physical, science, phenomena took place, although the light from these stars was not visible to any useful level for the benefit of life on the earth till day 4. What we have in verse 2 is the actual phenomenon of light in this material realm being made. I will not go in to the time frame of all of this. I am not that well informed on the physics in creation to explain it properly. I believe in the 6 days of genesis. Both from the view point of the NOW, and also, from the view point of Man. Einstein wrote about time and space, and I’m no Einstein. I’ll only mention this one point. From the beginning view point, if you send a pulse of light out at the same time as the universe begins to expand, every second, and then, if you go to the point, lets say, a million years away in the distance, along with the expanding universe, and look back to the beginning. What looks from the beginning point as pulses leaving every second on the second, after so far a distance, the pulses would be hours, or years, or millenniums apart. The pulses are sort of stretched out over time and space. So, from mans viewpoint, 6 days may seem millions, or even billions of years, when from the beginning viewpoint, they are only seconds, or days. There are some who have done calculations on this, and have discovered there are exactly 6 days equivalent from the beginning view point and mans viewpoint. Mans day segments are much longer, in the billions, but calculate down to the 6 days in Genesis, or very close to it. If you would like the references for what I say please send me an email and I’ll send it to you. There are physicist who can explain this far better than I. As I said in lesson I, I won’t try to explain HOW G-d created, though I’m sure He is able to SPEAK, and we can know.
Since the whole purpose of Creation was for fellowship (this is brought out if one is able to study the Hebrew, starting with the letter bet, which is the first letter used by G-d to write the Torah. This letter, according the Hebrew Word Pictures, by Dr. Frank T. Seekins, has a word picture of a tent, or house, which shows G-ds intent was for a dwelling place, a place of fellowship, for His Spirit, and the Spirit of man to commune together. G-d began to create with ONE purpose in mind, and He reveals this with the first letter)
Notice even after light is made, that the universe is still shrouded in darkness. Creation did not now become light, but was able to bear light if certain elements were combined in a perfect way, with the whole universe in unison working together as in its proper function, and in its proper place and space in time. This is a remarkable change that took place in the universe, for now, there was LIGHT! These verses speak of the order of G-d. He brings order to chaos. This is applied in so many ways through out the Bible. It is my hope we can take a closer look at this order in the next lesson.
2 “And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”
There are many scriptures throughout the Bible that very much describes the ‘spiritual aspect of this verse
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. NAS
Shalom
Bond Servant Mark
