Genesis 1v1 May I Have Your
Attention
By Ken Humphries
A young preacher was to preach his first
sermon. He asked an old preacher for advice. The old preacher
said, “You want a good introduction. A good introduction gets
the attention of the people.” The young preacher then
asked the old preacher if he knew a good introduction. The
old preacher said, "There is an introduction that I have
used frequently and it has always got the attention of the
people. When you get up, look at the people and tell them
that the best years of your life were spent in the arms of
another woman. Pause for a few seconds and then tell them
that woman was your mother.” The young preacher asked, “Are
you sure that will get their attention?” The old preacher
answered, “Young man, it's a sure-fire attention getter. It
always works. But let me warn you to tell your wife about
it before you use it.”
The Sunday came for the young preacher
to preach his first sermon. He got up to preach and was scared
to death. He had also forgotten to tell his wife about his
introduction. Nervously he looked out at the congregation
and said, “Folks, the best years of my life were spent in
the arms of another woman.” He paused. Folk’s mouths fell
open. People gasped all over the building. His wife jumped
up out of her seat and started to the pulpit. He was already
scared to death and when he saw the reaction of the people
and saw his wife storming up the aisle, it really rattled
him. He stuttered and said, “And to save my life, I can't
remember who it was.”
I have no doubt that he got their attention.
In Genesis 1v1, we have an introduction that gets our
attention. It is an introduction that not only gets our attention
but also holds it throughout the Bible and throughout the
ages. God suddenly steps out of eternity and introduces Himself.
God steps into history and says to humanity, “I AM GOD!”
May I have your attention!
The word “Genesis” means “beginnings.”
In Genesis we see the beginning of all things. We see
the beginning of such things as the Universe, the Human race,
marriage, the family, death, Human government, nations and
races, languages, trades, occupations, labour, along with
many other things. The book of Genesis covers about
2500 years of human history.
From the creation of Adam to the death
of Joseph, it basically gives us the history of 3 families,
the family of Adam, Noah, and Abraham. In Genesis
we see the beginning of the human race and the Hebrew race.
But the most important fact about the book of Genesis
is that we meet God for the first time.
In this study we want to consider again the
first 4 words of Genesis. “In the beginning God.”
These four words are not just the first 4 words
of the book of Genesis and the first 4 words of the Bible.
They are first and foremost a revelation of God. In the first
31 verses of Genesis, God is mentioned 32 times. Add
the personal pronouns; God is mentioned no less than 43 times.
Genesis 1 is more than a revelation of creation. It
is a revelation of the Creator. Creation is the object of
Genesis chapter 1, but God is the subject.
1. The Faithful Definition Of God!
The first statement in Genesis and in the
Bible is a statement about God. We see God revealing Himself.
We see God making Himself known. We see God wanting to get
our attention! (Matthew-Our Grandson had been attending
Sunday School Class, teacher had been teaching about God the
creator, Matthew’s question was, “How did God make Himself”)
for a then five year old boy it was necessary to condense
and simplify an explanation but for us In this opening
statement there are 3 great truths about God that are declared
and will answer the questions which build up in minds.
A. Firstly God Says Let Me Tell You About My
Existence:
We are told that there is a God. At the very
beginning the matter of ATHEISM (the belief that there
is no God) is answered. Genesis 1v1 does not seek
to prove the existence of God, it seeks to proclaim
the existence of God. It does not seek to persuade
us of the existence of God; it propounds the existence
of God.
The Russian astronaut Gherman Titoy said
after his return from space: “Some people say there is a God
out there…but in my travels around the earth all day long,
I looked and didn't see Him, I saw neither God nor angels,
I don't believe in God.”
George Barna states that more than nine
out of ten adults (93%) say they believe God exists. The
Bible says in Psalm 14v1, “The fool hath said in
his heart there is no God." Men
may doubt and deny the existence of God. The Bible calls them
a fool.
An atheist was once complaining to a Christian
that Christians had all the holidays but atheists didn't have
any. He said, “You have Easter,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, National day
of Prayer, and others.” The Christian said, “You do
have a holiday. 1st April, April Fool's Day.”
The natural assumption of the human heart
and mind is that there is a God. It is unnatural to the heart
and mind not to believe in a God. An atheist is someone
who chooses to believe there is no God. He chooses to doubt
the existence of God and deny the existence of God in spite
of what his heart and head tells him. The atheist
cries, “Prove to me there is a God.” I would
say to the atheist, “Prove to me there is no God.”
The atheist may proclaim that there is no God, but he cannot
prove that there is no God. There is much proof that there
is a God, but no proof that He does not exist. Atheism
is a choice.
A Quaker and a rationalist were talking.
The rationalist was explaining why he believed there was no
God. He said, “My mind refuses to believe in that which no
one has ever seen. No one has ever seen God thus there must
not be a God.” The Quaker asked, “Hast thou ever seen Paris,
France?” The rationalist replied, “No, but others have and
that allows me to believe there is a place called Paris, France.”
The Quaker said, “I think I am beginning to understand your
reasoning. Hast thou ever seen thy brains?” “No.” “Hast thou
ever met anyone who hast seen thy brains?” “No.” “Reckon thou
hast any brains?”
Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “It takes no
brains to be an atheist. Any stupid person can deny the existence
of a super-natural power because man's physical senses cannot
detect it. But there cannot be ignored the mystery of first
life…or the marvellous order in which the universe moves about
us. All of these evidence the handiwork of a beneficent Deity.
For my part, that Deity is the God of the Bible, and Christ,
His Son.”
B. Secondly God Says Let Me Tell You About My Eternalness:
In this opening statement we not only have the answer to
atheism, but we also
have the answer to PANTHEISM (the belief that
God is nature and in nature).
We find a beginning but not a beginning of God.
God is not nature for He was before nature. God existed before
anything or anyone.
We read in John 1v1 “In the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
(In the beginning was the Word) when anything that
ever had a beginning began the “Word” was, that is the Logos,
The Living Word, He is eternally God! (The Word
was with God) that phrase in the original means He was
face to face with God, that is, the Logos, The Living Word,
was on a power with God! He is equally God! (And the
Word was God) that is, the Logos, The Living Word, He is
Essentially God! It is hard for us
to imagine something without a beginning. Yet, God
had no beginning. Furthermore, He will have no end.
Isaiah 57v15, “For thus
saith the high and lofty One That inhabiteth eternity.” Psalm
90v2, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or
ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." God has
ever existed and will always exist. He is the Eternal God.
C. Thirdly God Says Let Me tell You About My Exclusiveness:
We not only see that Atheism
and Pantheism is answered in the opening statement
of the Bible, but also POLYTHEISM (the
belief that there is more than one God). Genesis 1v1, declares
that there was a time when there was nothing but God. He was
not one among many gods; He was the only God. There was nothing
else and there was no one else. If there is more than one
god, then the God of the Bible had to create them. Yet, no
where do we read in the Bible that God ever created other
gods. The many gods of this world were created by man, not
by God. We read in Deuteronomy 4v35, “Unto thee it was
shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there
is none else beside him.” Man has made gods out of the
sun, moon, stars, trees, rivers, and almost all of creation.
They have imagined and designed gods of wood, stone, and marble.
Yet there is only one God, and He is the Lord God of Genesis
1. We not only see the first declaration of God, but also:
2. The Foundational Description Of God!
Genesis 1v1 is not only important
in that we see God revealing Himself, but it is also important
in how God revealed Himself. As God introduced Himself,
He simply revealed Himself as “God.” There are many
names for God in the Bible. Each name is a revelation of God's
person. In each name something about God is revealed
or taught. When God first revealed Himself, he could have
revealed Himself as Jehovah, Father, LORD,
or by one of His many other names in the Bible. But when He
first made Himself known He did so as "God."
In so doing so, He was laying the foundation for all that
he would reveal about Himself. God wants us to take notice
and hear what He is saying! Clearly he wants to have
and hold our attention.
In any phase of Bible study there is what
is called “The Law of First Mention.” By
that we mean that the first mention of a person, place, doctrine,
or word in the Bible gives us an understanding of that truth
through-out the rest of the Bible. It is as one said, “The
first mention of a person, place, doctrine, or word, is an
embryo of a feature or fact for which there is fuller development.”
When God revealed Himself as “God” it was foundational.
At the very beginning God wanted us to know Him as
“God.” He wanted us to know that He was “God.” The
name “God” is the Hebrew word “Elohim.” Elohim
is a compound of two names, “El” and “Alah.”
It is found some 2500 times in the Old Testament. The name
teaches us two great truths about God.
A. He is a God Of Unlimited Power:
The name “EL” literally means “strong
one or Almighty.” The very first thing God revealed about
Himself was that He was the “Strong One,” the “Almighty
One.” He was declaring that in Him was fullness of might.
God was telling us that there was nothing impossible for Him
to do. He was a God of unlimited power.
We read in Jeremiah 32v17, “Ah Lord GOD!
behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great
power end stretched out arm, and there is nothing too
hard for thee.” In the beginning God declared Himself
to be a God of unlimited power and throughout the rest of
the Bible and history He displayed Himself to be a God of
unlimited power.
There are many examples of His unlimited
power. Job said in Job 38v22, “Hast thou
entered into the treasures of the snow?” Job said
that there were certain treasures to be found in the snow.
One of the treasures we find is that the snow is a demonstration
of God's unlimited power. A certain physicist has stated that
to produce from the vapour of water a quantity of snowflakes
which a child could carry would demand energy competent to
gather up the shattered blocks of the largest stone avalanche
of the Alps, and pitch them twice the height from which they
fell.
If it would require that much power to form
enough snow for a child to carry, think of the power that
is necessary for the formation of a snow that would blanket
the earth. God wanted us to know that He was able! He
said, “I am God. I am a God of unlimited power. There is nothing
too hard for me. There is nothing impossible for me.”
We also see that:
B. He Is A God Of Unquestionable Promises:
The other half of the name, “ALAH”
means “to swear, to bind with an oath, or to make
a covenant.” In the beginning God was declaring that He
was a God Who always keeps His word. His word is unquestionable.
Anything and everything He says is true. God was letting us
know at the start that He never lies. Hebrews 6v18,
tells us that is impossible for God to lie. He is a God
that can be trusted. His Word is truth!
A preacher noticed a group of boys standing
around a small stray dog. He walked up and asked, “What are
you doing boys?” “Telling lies,” said one of the boys. “The
one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog.” The preacher
was shocked. He said, “Boy's when I was your age, I never
thought of telling a lie.” The boys looked at each other and
finally one shrugged his shoulders and said, “I guess he wins
the dog.”
God was letting us know at the start that
He never breaks a promise. He will do what He said. He is
God! God wanted us to know at the start that everything else
He was going to say in the Bible was true. That's so
important for it tells that what God said about creation is
true, sin is true, salvation is true, Heaven is true, Hell
is true, and Jesus is true.
In the beginning we see that He is God! This
is foundational to all else that is said about Him and by
Him. Thirdly, we not only see the faithful defination of God
and the foundational description of God, but also we see:
3. The Fulfilling Desire Of God!
Now in these first 4 words of the Bible there
is a desire of God that is fulfilling and emphasized. He makes
Himself known, but the truth is He didn't have to reveal Himself.
He is a self-sufficient and self-sustained God. Back
in eternity past, if I may dare use the term, God never had
a need for anything for anyone. He needed nothing to exist.
He needed no one to survive. He could have existed in eternity
without ever having to make Himself known. But He wanted
to be known as God. He wanted others to know that He
was God. So He began time as we know it and created a
universe. In that universe he created a particular planet
called earth. He prepared that earth for a human race. On
that planet he put man and it was to man He revealed Himself.
He had a passionate desire to fulfil so he chooses
humankind to fulfil that desire! Why did God reveal
Himself to man? First, we see that:
A. He Revealed Himself That We Might Know Him Intellectually:
He wanted to bring us to a mental realization
of Himself as God. He wanted us to learn of Him and about
Him. He gave man a mind to seek Him out in creation. He gave
man the ability to think, reason, and conclude so that we
would be filled with wonder. The great tragedy of mankind
is that they spend a lifetime learning about science, history,
and humanity and never come to a knowledge of God in it all.
B. He Revealed Himself That We Might Know Him Intimately:
He not only wanted us to know about
Him, He wanted us to know Him. He not only wanted a mental
realization of God, but a personal relationship with God.
We read in Genesis 3v8, that Adam and Eve heard
the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day. Adam and Eve enjoyed personal and intimate fellowship
with God. God wants to be more than a fact of science and
history. He wants to be a personal God that we know and are
intimate with. Here is the great truth of Genesis 1v1.
This God that has revealed Himself we can know in a personal
way. Surely that is the whole purpose of understanding the
Scriptures, not just to have head knowledge but that we might
know God in a very personal way.
Acquaint thyself with God,
If thou wouldst taste His works.
Admitted once to his embrace,
Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before.
William Cowper (1731-1800)
“That I might know him, and the power
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3v10).
Isaiah 6 we have a servant of the living
God, a man called of God but who had his eyes on man, when
that man died, the king, Isaiah once again lifted his eyes
heavenward and saw the Lord high and lifted up. When he saw
the Lord as he had not seen him in a long time because he
had his eye on the King then he saw himself as God saw him
and recognized he was not the man he thought he was, from
that moment on God had his full attention, it was only then
his service for God went into overdrive, it was only then
God resigned him for the work ahead and asked the question,
“who will I send and who will go for us”? to, which Isaiah
might have replied, “but Lord I am already your servant, I
am already your prophet, why do you want to send another”?
but not so, Isaiah knew exactly how out of touch he was as
the servant of God and with his whole heart cried, and meant
every word of it, Here am I, send me!
How many are like that famous painting
of olden times, in which the artist depicted what seemed at
a distance a holy friar with a book before him, and his hands
crossed in devotion, looking like a saint indeed, but when
you came close to the venerable impostor, you found that his
hands, though clasped, enclosed a lemon, and instead of a
book there was a punch- bowl into which he was squeezing juice.
To seem to be answers men's purposes so well that it is little
marvel if pretenders swarm like the flies in Egypt's plague.
Yet if they would remember the last great day, men would abhor
hypocrisy.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable
Spurgeon, (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, Inc, 1990)
Aren’t you glad God wants to get our attention!
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