“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
- Genesis 1
The first sentence of genesis “In the beginning” has been used so many times in motion pictures and TV series. It is without doubt one of the most popular introductions. Before I continue with this topic, I should warn you that this particular blog was not designed to challenge or question any particular dogma from any denomination. It is simply thinking out loud and sharing my efforts in learning more about our creator.
We should also understand that Genesis is written in human language, allowing us to have an idea about the creation. The key phrase is “human language” which allocates time frames like 1st, 2nd, 3rd day to the occurrence of the creation events. It is very safe to say that it was more complex than that.
The above quote from Genesis tells us that there was nothing else but only God (Spirit of God). If we are going to be more specific let’s say that God, which equals the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, was the only being or beings around. That was it!
A first question is: Did God feel lonely or bored and that’s why He decided to create something new?
This particular question is very interesting because something triggered the supreme being, our creator to construct something new. Later on, He decided to create a being whom He would have a different interaction with - The Man.
As we continue reading the Genesis, it is important to accept the fact that God had to interact with His new creation. Since there was nothing before that, this interaction was also new to Him.
He was creating and evaluating this Earth and Life forms, and He thought, “It was good”. This particular sentence is found a few times in Genesis 1. It gives the sense that the Lord was grading what He was seeing. But also at some point in Genesis, things started to get very dynamic- there was a disobedience to God’s plan, which trigger a set of consequences. It is also obvious that once the first sin occurred, sin became part of this new creation. In fact, things got so bad that the Lord had to flood the Earth in an effort to reset and start again. This is the sense I get from the reading.
As I mentioned earlier, Genesis is trying to explain something very complex- the creation. For instance, there are metaphors and other literary resources to help us visualize “the beginning”.
I have read the first chapter of the Bible several times. The more I read it – the more it appears to me that the creator is also in evolution. In other words, He went from being by himself to overseeing and caring for His newly developed world. It was a new experience for Him. He has used several resources in His efforts to re-direct humanity to His original plan.
We can also see a change on His approach, from sending plagues, fire, or a flood to destroy the world, to sending His own Son to save it.