by A. South

Created on: May 06, 2008

The Bible opens with the statement: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". The Bible not only celebrates the beauty and intricacy of the creation, but ultimately celebrates and glorifies God as the creator. The main aim of the creation chapters, Genesis chapters 1 and 2 is to tell us not how the world was made, but rather to point us to who made it.

Genesis 1 and 2 tells us who without giving many answers about how. Some today may think this is a defect because these chapters do not have a scientific explanation of creation and therefore do not feed our interest of passion to know everything about the world we live in. In these chapters we find a sort of subtle rebuke of our passion to know nature without regard to what matters mostknowing nature's Creator.

Essentially, the message of these two chapters is this: "You have seen the sea? The sky? Sun, moon and stars? You have watched the birds and the fish? You have observed the landscape, the vegetation, the animals, the insects, all the big things and little things together? You have marveled at the wonderful complexity of human beings, with all their powers and skills, and the deep feelings of fascination, attraction, and affection that men and women arouse in each other? Fantastic, isn't it? Well now, meet the one who is behind it all!" It is as if these chapters say: now that you have enjoyed these works of art, you must shake hands with the artist; since you were thrilled by the music, we will introduce you to the composer. It was to show us the Creator rather than the creation, and to teach us knowledge of God rather than physical science, that Genesis 1 and 2, along with such celebrations of creation as Psalm 104 and Job 38-41, were written.

In thinking about the act of creating, we tend to think of God as a craftsman. But in reality, He is so much more than that. Craftsmen create' by shaping existing material, and are ultimately limited by the materials they are working with. When God created' there were no materials that existed at all until God said "Let there be" To make this point, theologians speak of creation "out of nothing." God in creating was absolutely free and unrestricted. There was nothing that determined or shaped what He brought into being except for His own idea of what He would like.

God is our creator and the creator of the heavens and the earth (in Genesis "heavens and earth" is Bible language for "everything that is.")

As our creator, God is worthy to be loved, worshipped, obeyed and glorified above all else.

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