THE GOSPEL IN GENESIS ONE.
Now THAT our Sabbath-school lessons, which appear in the SIGNS, are for this quarter on the book of Genesis, it is earnestly hoped that the student will not miss the Gospel treasure which is there deposited, by vainly speculating over mere theories. Of course a few facts are easily settled by the Scriptures; and, first, a few suggestions as to these facts, and, secondly, as to the Gospel. When did God create, or bring into existence, the heaven and the earth?—“In the beginning.” When this “beginning” was, how long a period it covered, it is idle to conjecture; for it is not revealed. That it was a period which antedated the six days’ work is evident from the following:— 1. There were other beings created before man existed. These are known as God’s angels or messengers. They were present when the “foundations” of the earth were laid (Job 38:4-7), “in the beginning” (Heb. 1:10; Col. 1:16; John 1:1-3). These beings must have had habitations, which of course were created before the six days’ work. 2. Satan was once Lucifer, the Day Star, or Light-bringer, one of the “morning stars.” The early history of the earth presents him as a tempter in the Garden of Eden, immediately after the six days’ work. Genesis 3. But when “the foundations of the earth” were laid, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:4-7. When Adam was placed in Eden, one of the morning stars—Lucifer—had fallen. 3. The first day could not begin till God created light and separated light from darkness. Gen. 1:3-5 marks the first day’s work. 4. Verse 2 of Genesis 1 indicates also that a period of time existed after the creation of verse 1 and before the six days’ work which followed, during which the earth was “waste and void,” and darkness enshrouded it. Job 38:9. 5. In referring to the work in the beginning it is said, “In the beginning God created;” but in referring to the six days’ work we read, “In six days the Lord made.” Surely this is not accidental. Verse 1 refers to the matter of the earth; the six days’ work, to its formation. In the beginning the weaver creates his web, and for a time leaves it; subsequently, in six days, he makes of it a beautiful garment. 1. The record presents before us as the God of the Book the Creator of the heaven and the earth. Subsequent revelation shows us that this was God the Son, known to the world later as Jesus the Christ, creating with the Father. He is the Revelation of God to man. (See 1 Cor. 8:6; John 1:1-3.) “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him.” Col. 1:16. When were they created, their foundations laid?—“In the beginning.” This is the God of power which the Book places before us in the first sentence, in whom we may trust and not be afraid. 2. God knew that angels and man would be tempted, knew that they would fall; and so He gave a practical lesson right in the very earth itself of His power to redeem. He brought the matter of the earth into existence in the beginning. “He spake, and it was.” Ps. 33:9. But while He finished for the abode of other creatures the worlds they needed, the earth was left “waste and void” [R.V.], “desolate and waste” (Boothroyd), “without form and chaotic” (Spurrell), “unsightly [better, perhaps, “invisible”] and unfinished” (Septuagint), and covered with darkness. So also is the sinner, darkened, blinded, his mind in chaos and confusion, desolate of good, alienated from the life of God. (See Eph. 2:2, 3, 12; 4:18, 19; 2 Cor. 4:4.) But as the Spirit of God came and moved upon, brooded over, the face of the dark waste (Gen. 1:2), so God sends His Spirit into the world to strive with man, to turn him to repentance. (See Gen. 6:3; John 16:8; Gal. 5:17.) And then as God by His word spoke the matter into existence before His creatures knew; as He by His word spoke the world from confusion to order, from chaos to cosmos, from wasteness and ugliness to fruitfulness and beauty, during the six days, when His angels all beheld rejoicing, and Satan stood abashed, so into every waste, desolate, darkened, blinded, chaotic soul who believes God, who looks to Him, who reaches up his helpless hand to His Saviour and asks His presence, that mighty Creator-Redeemer will by the same word speak light and life and fruitfulness and order and beauty. He may say as did the leper, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean,” and by faith may hear the word spoken to him, “I will; be thou clean.” He may know, “Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” In his blindness the sinner may say, “Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me,” and he may by faith feel the divine touch which opens his eyes. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Blessed be God for the revelation of both Creator and Redeemer in the first expressions of His Book. We need not, therefore, trouble ourselves as to just how we came into existence, as to just what our lives have been; our Creator is also Redeemer, and He is able to save to the uttermost.