Creation: God, the Only God Creates

Creation: God, the Only God, Yahweh, Jesus Creates

 

“The Holy Ghost intended to teach us how to go to heaven, now how the heavens go.” – Galileo in a letter to the Grand Duchess Christina

 

Moses wrote Genesis in roughly 1400 BC. The setting is the wilderness as Israel prepares to enter the land of promise. 

 

Moses’ intent is to disciple his people to know YHWH, Jesus, as the one who just rescued them from Eghptian slavery so that they do not continue to fall into the snare of the false “gods” of Canaan and their dark counter narratives. 

 

MOSES’ INTENT IS THEOLOGICAL NOT SCIENTIFIC. 

 

What we learn about Jesus from creation 1. sets him apart, 2. provides contrast to the demonic manifestations as “gods” and their capricious behavior, and 3. highlights the steady and unchanging eternality of Jesus Christ. 

 

This is what Moses said about these “gods” he is trying to disciple his people away from:

Deuteronomy 32:16-18 (ESV) They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

 

What does creation teach us about Yhwh? What can we observe?

 

1. Yhwh is God and there is no other. (Moses identifies who “God” is in Genesis 2:4)
   1. Genesis 1:1 leads to Genesis 2:4 (ESV) These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
   2. Isaiah 45:18 (ESV) For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.
2. Yhwh creates from nothing. He then forms what he created.
   1. “Bara” Genesis 1:1, 21, 27; 2:3, 4; 5:1, 2 – To bring into existence.
      1. Genesis 2:4 (ESV) These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created (bara), in the day that the LORD God made (asah) the earth and the heavens.
   2. “Asah” – Genesis 1:7 – To fashion; to shape
   3. This shows:
      1. His might, 
      2. His word/decree is effectual, and 
      3. He shapes creation and is the source of beauty. 
3. Yhwh is a prophet. He creates and fashions by his word. 
   1. “And God said…”
   2. God’s word is powerfully effectual. 
   3. God’s word creates and accomplishes with effect: Isaiah 55:10-11 (ESV) For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
   4. God’s word judges: Jeremiah 23:29 (ESV) Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
      1. Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
4. Yhwh is Trinitarian.
   1. Genesis 1:26-28
5. Yhwh is eternal.
   1. In the beginning God…Yhwh was already when all things were created. 
   2. He has no beginning and no end.
      1. We are not eternal. We are mortal/immortal, but we can never be eternal. 
6. Yhwh is living and is the source of life. 
   1. Genesis 1:20-31
7. Yhwh is independent.
   1. The LORD is not in need. 
   2. Acts 17:24-25 (ESV) The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
8. Yhwh is holy, making him transcendent. 
   1. God is set apart from creation. He is not creation. 
   2. Creation is not God. 
   3. God is completely other, set apart in his being and in his works and in what he approves. 
      1. Psalms 50:21 (ESV) These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
9. Yhwh is immanent. 
   1. Genesis 18, Yhwh comes to warn, eat with and show kindness to Abraham (after the fall). He is immanent. 
   2. God is providentially near, involved, sustaining and working with us, for us and against evil. 
   3. God has not set the world in motion then left it and it’s outcome up to us. 
      1. The Lord, among “too many to count” passages, let us know he is weaving together events, people, people’s motives whether good or bad for his glory and our good in Christ. 
      2. Romans 8:28-30 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
10. Yhwh is personal.
    1. Yhwh has a name…Yhwh. He is a “he”. 
    2. Jesus relates to his created order. 
       1. John 10:27 (ESV) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
11. Yhwh is gracious. 
    1. God does not seek to get even with creatures and creation after the fall, he preaches to them of consequences, and he promises that one day the offspring of the woman will crush the enemy. 
    2. God sacrifices creatures to clothe the newly shamed sinners and in grace does not allow death to have them on the spot. 
       1. Psalm 86:15 (ESV) But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
12. Yhwh is king/ruler/sovereign. 
    1. Jesus sits as the sole ruler over his universe. 
       1. As vice-regents we can execute the mandate in so much as he has given us space to do it. 
       2. But we cannot rule over forces of creation, uphold them, or direct them. 
       3. Jesus can and does rule over his creation as the King. 
          1. Job 36:32 (ESV) He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.
          2. Job 37:10-13 (ESV) By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. 11 He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. 12 They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. 13 Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.

 

What do we do with the knowledge of the Lord who creates?

 

1. We know our place. Psalm 50:21
   1. We are creature. Jesus is the Sovereign King.
2. We begin to have a framework to recognize false and dark counter narratives that have something other than Jesus as their King. 
   1. Our knowing God should cause us to begin to recognize truth and best applications of truth. 
3. We learn to revere/honor/exalt/defer to God’s word. 
   1. This makes us aware of fixed realities that determine fixed ethics.
      1. Scripture becomes how we think, speak and see everything!
   2. This also makes us wary of shifting moral currents. 
4. We honor and defend life as vice-regents of Jesus. 
   1. Human life. 
   2. Creature life as stewards not brutal takers for over grown appetites. 
5. We are careful to worship God as holy.
   1. This is what the bible means by “fear Yahweh”. 
      1. The sweet spot for worship is confidence to approach but not too cozy to forget our place. 
         1. We don’t have a sin free framework for that to make much sense in. You really have to experience a few Isaiah 6 moments for that to land on you right. 
6. We live as though God were near and working for the good of his people.
   1. How would we act if Jesus were standing or sitting next to me? 
7. Worship!