Part 1: In the beginning

Welcome to the first study in our course on Genesis.

In the Introduction we stood back and looked at the whole book. Now we begin to read it, at the very beginning. In this first part, we will spend all our time on just two verses. That may seem slow. But these two verses are the foundation of everything else in the Bible. If we understand them, we will understand a great deal about God, about the world, and about ourselves.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2, BSB)

Let us take these words one phrase at a time.

“In the beginning God”. The first words of the Bible take us back to the beginning of time itself. Before there was a universe, before there was space or matter or time, God was there.

Notice what that means. Genesis is a book of beginnings. It tells us about the beginning of the world, of the human race, of marriage, of sin, of God's people. But there is one thing in Genesis that has no beginning, and that is God Himself.

Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. (Psalm 90:2, BSB)

Moses wrote this psalm too. “From everlasting to everlasting You are God.” God did not come into being. He always was, and He always will be. When God told Moses His name at the burning bush, He called Himself “I AM WHO I AM”. He simply is.

And because God was there before anything else, He did not need anything else. Before the world existed, God was not lonely, or bored, or lacking anything. He did not make the world because He needed it.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. (Acts 17:24–25, BSB)

Paul said this to the people of Athens, a city full of temples and idols. They thought their gods needed houses to live in, and gifts and food from their worshippers.

But the God who made the world is not like that. “Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything”. It is the other way round. “He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” We depend on Him for every breath we take. He does not depend on us for anything.

That is humbling. But it is also wonderful. It means that everything God gives us, He gives freely. He made the world not out of need, but out of the overflow of His own goodness, and for His own glory.

“God created”. In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, this word for “create” is only ever used with God as the one who does it. People make things. A carpenter makes a table, but he makes it out of wood that is already there. Only God creates in the sense of this verse.

Genesis does not tell us that God took something that was already there and shaped it. Verse 1 is the beginning of everything. There was nothing to start with, except God.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3, BSB)

This is how the New Testament reads Genesis 1. “The universe was formed at God's command”. And “what is seen was not made out of what was visible”. Everything we can see was made out of nothing that could be seen.

Notice also how we know this: “By faith we understand”. No human being was there to watch. We know it because God, who was there, has told us. That is not believing without reason. It is believing the One who was there, and who cannot lie.

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist. (Romans 4:17, BSB)

Paul says something remarkable about God here. He “calls into being what does not yet exist”. That is what God did at creation. He spoke, and things that did not exist came to be.

And notice where Paul says it. He is speaking of Abraham, who believed God's promise of a son when he and Sarah were far too old to have children. The God who made the world out of nothing could give life where there was none. We will come to Abraham later in the course. But already we can see that the God of creation is the God of the promise. Nothing is too hard for Him.

“The heavens and the earth”. This is the Bible's way of saying “everything”: from the furthest galaxies to the ground under our feet, everything seen and unseen.

And this has a great consequence. God is not part of the world. He is not the sun, or the stars, or the sea, or nature itself, as many of the peoples around Israel believed, and as some people believe today. Everything that is not God was made by God. The sun and the stars are His creatures. And so He alone is to be worshipped.

You alone are the LORD. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all things, and the host of heaven worships You. (Nehemiah 9:6, BSB)

Long after Moses, God's people prayed like this. “You alone are the LORD. You created the heavens… the earth… the seas”. Notice how the prayer moves from creation to worship. The God who made everything is the only God, and “the host of heaven worships” Him.

Think how much these seven words in Hebrew rule out.

They rule out the idea that there is no God, because the Bible's first words are “In the beginning God”.

They rule out the idea that there are many gods, each ruling a part of the world. One God made the heavens and the earth.

They rule out the idea that everything is God, or that God is just another name for nature. God made nature, and He is distinct from it.

And they rule out the idea that the world simply happened, by chance, with no one behind it. The world exists because God willed it to exist.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20, BSB)

Notice that the Bible does not begin by arguing that God exists. It simply tells us. God does not need to prove Himself to us. He is God. The Bible begins with Him, and so should we.

And Paul tells us why it does not need to argue. God's “eternal power and divine nature” are “clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship”. The world itself shows that it did not make itself. The heavens declare the glory of God. And so, Paul says, “men are without excuse”. Every one of us is called to honour our Creator.

“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:11, BSB)

Here is the song of heaven. “Worthy are You… for You created all things”. The fact that God made everything is a reason to worship Him.

And it has a very personal side. If God made all things, He made you. You belong to Him. Your life is not your own invention, and it is not yours to do with as you please. You were made by Him and for Him. That is where a right view of our lives begins.

Now verse 2. “Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.”

“Formless” means not yet shaped. “Void” means empty. The earth was covered with deep water, and it was dark. Nothing could yet live there. It was not a ruin. It was simply not yet finished: like a building site before the house goes up.

In the rest of the chapter, we will watch God deal with each of these. What was formless, He will shape. What was empty, He will fill. And where there was darkness, He will bring light.

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:18, BSB)

The prophet Isaiah tells us God's purpose. “He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited”. The earth of verse 2 was empty. But God never meant it to stay that way. He was preparing a home for the creatures He would make, and above all for man.

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light. (Jeremiah 4:23, BSB)

The words “formless and void” come together in only one other place in the Bible, here in Jeremiah. The prophet sees a vision of the land after God's judgement, and it is as if creation has been undone: “formless and void”, with no light.

So these words describe an earth that is not yet a home for life. In Genesis 1 that is the beginning of God's work, and He will make it good. In Jeremiah it is what happens when people turn from God. Without Him there is only emptiness and darkness.

As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions. (Deuteronomy 32:11, BSB)

“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” The word “hovering” is used here, near the end of the books of Moses, of an eagle hovering over its young. It is a picture of care, and of readiness to act.

This is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Some translations say “a wind from God”. But the eagle over its nest is not a picture of a wind. The Spirit of God was there over the dark waters, ready to bring order, and life, and light.

That is comforting. Before God said a single word, His Spirit was already there, over the darkness. He was not far away. And the darkness was not out of His control.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1–3, BSB)

When John begins his Gospel, he deliberately echoes Genesis: “In the beginning”. And he takes us further back still. In the beginning, the Word already was. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

A few verses later, John tells us who the Word is: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” The Word is the Son of God, who became a man, Jesus Christ.

“Through Him all things were made.” So the Lord Jesus was not only present at creation. He was the One through whom God made everything.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15–17, BSB)

Paul says the same, and more. “All things were created through Him and for Him.” The world was made through Christ, and it was made for Christ. And “in Him all things hold together”. The One who made the world keeps it going, every moment.

“Firstborn over all creation” does not mean that the Son was the first thing made. Paul has just said that all things were created through Him. “Firstborn” is a title of rank: He is the heir, the Lord over all creation.

So look again at the two verses we have read. We meet God, who creates. And we meet the Spirit of God, hovering over the waters. Then John and Paul have shown us one more thing: God made all things through His Word, His Son. And in the next part, when we hear God speak for the first time, “Let there be light”, we will remember that God creates through His Word.

There is only one God. Genesis is very clear about that. But already, in these first verses of the Bible, there are hints that the one God is more than one Person. The Hebrew word for God here is plural in form, and yet it is used with a singular verb. On its own, that would not prove anything. But as the Bible goes on, what is hinted at here is made plain: one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all at work in creation.

Here are some questions to think about. You might like to pause the video and talk them over, or write down your answers.

God needs nothing from us. How does that change the way you see the good things He gives you?

If God made you, you belong to Him. What does that mean for how you live this week?

And Paul says of Jesus that “all things were created through Him and for Him”. What does that tell you about who He is?

In the next part, we will read the six days of creation.